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UNHERALDED NEWS
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How did Jefferson know?
Brainy Quotes Sep 06, 2010
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:'I believe that Banking institutions are more dangerous to Our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow Private banks to control the issue of their Currency, first by inflation, then by Deflation, the banks and corporations that will Grow up around the banks will deprive the people Of all property - until their children Wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers Conquered.'
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How did Jefferson know?
Brainy Quotes Sep 06, 2010
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:'I believe that Banking institutions are more dangerous to Our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow Private banks to control the issue of their Currency, first by inflation, then by Deflation, the banks and corporations that will Grow up around the banks will deprive the people Of all property - until their children Wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers Conquered.'
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How did Jefferson know?
Brainy Quotes Sep 06, 2010
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:'I believe that Banking institutions are more dangerous to Our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow Private banks to control the issue of their Currency, first by inflation, then by Deflation, the banks and corporations that will Grow up around the banks will deprive the people Of all property - until their children Wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers Conquered.'
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Liberty U. removing Ergun Caner as seminary dean over contradictory statements
Washington Post Sep 05, 2010
EditorCE: Liberty University did not fire its Dean of the Seminary for violating repeatedly one of Moses deadly sin Commandments, "thou shall not," but instead only moved Caner into a more quiet spot from which to teach students and rebuild his tarnish image while he continue his false witness against his Muslim neighbors. Liberty University is an (Falwell's son seems to run things) as an accomplice in Caners false witness. Liberty teaches every student that Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy. See The Zionist, Messianic-Christian Network Inside Evangelical Churches: Walid Shoebat, His Clones and Enablers ---Washington Post: As he told it to church audiences across the country, Caner was entrenched in Muslim extremism when he moved to the United States from Turkey as a teenager and found Jesus. He wrote books and, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, developed a reputation for his impassioned speeches on Muslim radicalism to largely evangelical audiences.----In some accounts, Caner said he grew up in Turkey in a climate of "Islamic jihad." In recorded sermons, he talked about coming to the United States as a teenager and converting to Christianity. In one sermon, he put it more bluntly, saying he was trained to do what the Sept. 11 terrorists had done.---Yet, in a book he co-wrote with his younger brother, "Unveiling Islam: An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs," he said their parents wed in Sweden and the family moved to Ohio when Ergun was a young boy, an account he also has provided publicly.----Indeed, bloggers found his parents' divorce records showing the family moved to Ohio in 1970, when Caner was 3 or 4, contradicting his account of teenage years on the cusp of Muslim extremism in Turkey. Bloggers also pointed to suspicious mistakes an Islamic expert was unlikely to make and timelines that did not match up.
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A Speech for Endless War
Norman Solomon, Huffington Post Sep 03, 2010
While now trumpeting the nobility of an Iraq war effort that he'd initially disparaged as "dumb," Barack Obama is polishing a halo over the Afghanistan war, which he touts as very smart. In the process, the Oval Office speech declared that every U.S. war -- no matter how mendacious or horrific -- is worthy of veneration.Obama closed the speech with a tribute to "an unbroken line of heroes" stretching "from Khe Sanh to Kandahar -- Americans who have fought to see that the lives of our children are better than our own." His reference to the famous U.S. military outpost in South Vietnam was a chilling expression of affinity for another march of folly.With his commitment to war in Afghanistan, President Obama is not only on the wrong side of history. He is also now propagating an exculpatory view of any and all U.S. war efforts -- as if the immoral can become the magnificent by virtue of patriotic alchemy.
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Fears Grow Over Global Food Supply
Financial Times, London Sep 03, 2010
"Two days of unrest in Maputo, Mozambique, left seven people dead and 280 injured after the government decided to raise bread prices by 30%Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia’s decision to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08.---In Maputo, trade and industry minister Antonio Fernandes told a national radio station on Friday that the riots had caused 122m meticais ($3.3m) of damage. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the food riots could spread."
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Bernanke Meets Buffett in New Role Conceived to Protect Markets
Editor Sep 02, 2010
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Bernanke Meets Buffett in New Role Conceived to Protect
Markets
By Steve Matthews and Joshua
Zumbrun -
Sep
1, 2010 9:01 PM MT
Thu Sep 02 04:01:37 GMT 2010
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The cover of the October 2010 issue of Bloomberg
Markets magazine shows a photo of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal
Reserve, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill
in Washington, D.C., on December 3, 2009. Photograph: Brooks
Kraft/Bloomberg Markets via Bloomberg
In November 2009, Senate Banking
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd advanced a radical proposal:
to create a super-regulator that would take over most of the
bank supervision that had been done by the Federal Reserve
System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other agencies.
Dodd had been a harsh critic of the Fed and its chairman,
Ben S. Bernanke, declaring in July 2009 that
the central bank’s
supervision of financial services had been an “abysmal failure,”
Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its October 2010 issue.
In January 2010, the U.S. Senate approved Bernanke for a
second four-year term by a tally of 70 to 30 -- giving him the
most negative votes any nominee had received since the chamber
started confirming Fed chiefs in 1978.
Six months later, when President Barack Obama signed into
law a 2,300-page bill overhauling financial services regulation,
the super-regulator had been forgotten. Instead, the Federal
Reserve had acquired new regulatory heft, and Bernanke had
emerged as the most powerful Fed chairman ever -- with more
authority even than his legendary predecessor, Alan Greenspan,
who had chaired the Fed for 18 years.
For all of the heat Bernanke took for failing to see the
gathering credit storm in 2007, lawmakers -- with a few
exceptions -- have come to appreciate the actions he has taken
to rescue the banking system and the economy in the past two
years. He has pushed interest rates as low as they can go and
vowed to keep them there until the employment picture improves.
Last week at a Fed meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, he said the
Fed was ready to provide still more stimulus if needed.
Vote of Confidence
“When the dust settled, Congress realized that Bernanke and
the Fed knew what they were doing,” says Mark Gertler, a New
York University economics professor who did research with
Bernanke, a former Princeton University professor, on the causes
of the Great Depression. “The power of any Fed chairman is
ultimately based on the perception by Congress that he will use
it prudently. He has this reputation.”
Under the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,
known as the Dodd-Frank law, Bernanke’s Fed gains powers never
before housed in one regulator. The central bank remains the
supervisor of 5,000 U.S. bank holding companies and 830 state
banks.
The law gives it new authority to control the lending and
risk taking of the largest, most “systemically important” banks.
Among them: investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan
Stanley, which became bank holding companies in September 2008.
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Israeli settlers threaten to restart building
Financial Times, London Sep 01, 2010
"The move was described as a response to the killing of four settlers by Palestinian militants near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday night. But the resumption of construction is also timed to coincide with the launch of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Washington on Wednesday, and is certain to add to the already tense atmosphere ahead of the negotiations.---"But the deaths also pose a political dilemma to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, who came under attack from a far-right politician on Wednesday: “The terror attack is a reminder to Netanyahu who his partners are . . . The blood of the victims is upon the head of the Likud prime minister,” said Michael Ben-Ari, a member of parliament for the far-right National Union party."
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Banks post $21.6 billion profit in 2nd quarter
INO Financial News Aug 31, 2010
EditorCE: This report tells us banks (the large ones) are making enormous profits without lending money to people who need it. Many small businessmen can not get a loan at any price. So how can this be? Because mega-banks are being given money to invest at about .5% interest cost and instead of making loans they are investing in government bonds that pay 2-3%. They make their huge profits risk free, and increase their fees to you. Do not overdraft your checking account, else you will find out what "exorbitant" means."Banks post $21.6 billion profit in 2nd quarter---The decline in bank lending stemming from the financial crisis showed signs of leveling off, the data show. Total lending declined by $107.5 billion, or 1.4 percent from the first quarter. It posted the steepest drop since World War II _ 7.5 percent _ in 2009 from the year before."
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Bernanke Says Fed Ready to Provide Stimulus If Needed
Bloomberg.com Aug 27, 2010
EditorCE: "unconventional measures?" What does this mean? Keep in mind the conventional formula for the FED is to electronically print money to keep lost-cause-business and broke government going. To Bernanke, printing and giving money away is "conventional," so what can he have in mind for us? His predecessor once said the FED would keep the economy boiling even if they had to toss money out of helicopters...this is a bad joke because there are not enough planes to carry the paper dollars that the FED prints electronically in a week! There may not be enough trees to make that much paper! ---So "conventional" means something else. I would hazard a guess the FED will secretly buy stocks in the open market to prop up wall street and stimulate investors. The fed policy will eventually make any commodity of value a collectors item, from cigarettes and whiskey, to gold. ----"The Committee is prepared to provide additional monetary accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves necessary, especially if the outlook were to deteriorate significantly,” the Fed chairman said today at the Kansas City Fed’s annual monetary symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
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Pakistan Slams U.S. For Drone Attacks
RTTNews.com, Inc. Aug 25, 2010
Washington claims the drone attacks, initiated by former U.S. President George W. Bush and escalated under President Barack Obama, target militants, though the U.S. does not directly acknowledge the missile attacks.However, the attacks, operated by CIA in cooperation with the Pentagon, reportedly have killed hundreds of civilians in Pakistan since 2008 which has strained relations between the two countries.Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the strikes, saying they violate the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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Deconstructing the Gaza blockade
Oday Shahin, State AZ Press Aug 24, 2010
Thank State of Arizona University Press for publishing the factually correct letter Deconstruction The Gaza Blockade, by Oday Shahin. ---
The so called Peace Talks about to begin are insincere, and can only fail because the people who live in Gaza and West Bank are not represented. As Mr. Shahi points out, Hamas was elected and is more popular among their people than our own government is in the US. Hamas was elected not only in Gaza, but the West Bank. As Shahi correctly points out, the election was certified by an American former President's volunteer team who took the trouble to be there.
The so-called peace talks treat Mahmoud Abbas as the leader, but he was unelected almost three years ago. That makes him an appointed puppet president (much like Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan) serving at the will of Israel who dictates, and the US government who finances with our money.
What if some European state held a world conference on disbanding NATO, or one on global warming, and invited John McCain, or Bill Clinton to represent the USA instead of President Obama? No one would go! If we believe in democracy we must accept those elected and give them a chance to govern.
Instead Israel bounty hunts Hamas leaders, assasinating them like pawns in a video game. That is why we see some Hamas soldiers wearing masks in photos. Many have been elected to the Israeli parliament (Knesset), but are held in prisons or under house arrest.
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Onward Christian Zionists
Boston Globe, James Carroll Aug 24, 2010
James Carroll Writes: Pursuing an ultimate form of
realpolitik, Israeli leaders happily collaborate with a reactionary
American religious movement which, while having learned to downplay its
Jew-denigrating End Time theology, nevertheless aims in its very essence
at the elimination of Jewish faith. Israeli leaders, in their
dependence on such Christians, exchange short-term benefit for long-term
jeopardy. American Christian Zionism is a particularly lethal form of
contemporary fundamentalism. Theologically uncritical and dangerously
triumphalist, it is bad for Israel, Palestine, America, and peace.
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Fed Starts Buying Treasuries in Resumption of Purchase Program
Bloomberg News, Liz Capo McCormick, Aug 17, 2010
Bloomberg reported with low priority:"The Federal Reserve began buying Treasuries in the first outright purchase of U.S. government debt since October to prevent money from being drained from the financial system.The Fed is seeking to keep holdings in the System Open Market Account, or SOMA, at about $2.054 trillion, the amount it held on Aug. 4, by using the proceeds from maturing mortgage- backed securities to buy Treasuries. The purchases are the Fed’s first attempt to bolster the economy in more than a year.The purchases should average about $2 billion per operation, according to Wrightson ICAP, a Jersey City, New Jersey-based research unit of ICAP Plc that specializes in U.S. government finance."Federal Reserve Bank of New York"The purchase or sale of Treasury securities on an outright basis adds or drains reserves available in the banking system. Such transactions are arranged on a routine basis to offset other changes in the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet in conjunction with efforts to maintain conditions in the market for reserves consistent with the federal funds target rate set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)."http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pomo/display/index.cfm
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Israeli says Facebook photos with blindfolded Palestinians thoughtless but not humiliating
Chicago Tribune Aug 17, 2010
EditorCE: It is not surprising that the Israeli military condemned this act even though torture is acceptable under its law, We are want to believe it was isolated and unusual incident. As female soldier Eden Aberjil blurted out, it is indeed an "every day" event. Torture that is winked at by Israeli law pales Abu-Ghrab. ----Only the modesty of the Arab culture shelters us from knowing about systematic brutality, including wide scale rape of both men and women, terrible facts that I believe Arabs keep largely to themselves. Open secrets that I too hate to broach out of respect for the Arab culture. ---Ms Aberjil, is correct when she says it happens "every day." She made the mistake of taking pictures. Confirmation of the horror of Israel's occupation comes from none other than former Israeli military officers---Financial Times: In a Aug 17 story Financial Times of London quoted Breaking The Silence spokesman: "The group also issued a statement attacking the army’s claims: “This picture is not the ugly behaviour of one person, but a norm throughout the army...that is a result of military rule over a civilian population over a long time. We suggest that the IDF spokesman not insult the intelligence of the Israeli public, and clarify that it is a widespread phenomenon, not an aberration caused by a single soldier.”( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0d8166e0-aa12-11df-9367-00144feabdc0.html )From The Chicago Tribune story: ----(Female Soldier) "Eden Aberjil struck a defensive tone in a pair of radio interviews, claiming that she did not do anything wrong and that similar things take place "every day" in the army. "Yehuda Shaul of Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli combat officers that criticizes Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, said the pictures showed how Israel's occupation of the Palestinians has become "so routine ... you lose the ability to see them as human beings."
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Harvard University Fund Sells All Israel Holdings
Intifada Palestine Aug 16, 2010
Harvard Management Company notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday that it had sold all its holdings in Israeli companies during the second quarter of 2010. No reason for the sale was mentioned. The Harvard Management Company manages Harvard University’s endowment.EditorCE adds: This story relates that "Harvard Management Company stated in its 13-F Form that it sold (stock in six companies ) including 102,940 shares in Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP)." Check Points" are Israel's prison gates were they effectively lock up four million persons. Why did Harvard ever own it?
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On Wall Street "Competition is a Sin" (our title)
Bloomberg.com Aug 16, 2010
"Goldman Sachs Undercuts Rivals in GM IPO as It Loses Top Role"EditorCE Note: Bloomberg has leaked to us how Wall Street jacks up fees on government business, bleeding the consumer again and again. Keep in mind, the bankers have dipped into the GM pot several times since the "bail out" a few months past, in which the Treasury became majority owner of GM. In the process it authorized GM to pay evaluation fees, bankruptcy fees, and private placement fees in uncounted amounts. Now huge underwriting fees will be paid by the Treasury to these same bankers, and absorbed by the consumer, for selling the Treasury's GM stock back to the public. ---But this time it was a little different, the underwriting fees were so tempting, Wall Street's biggest rat turned on the pack and offered to cut a competitive cut. So the government had no choice but make the rat pack match Goldman's much lower bid because Goldman is legally ineligible. But for Bloomberg, we would have never known the broker-banks are charging the Government three or four times what should be competitive. On Wall Street, it seems "competition is a sin," as John D. Rockerfeller once was reported to have said in private.--------------------------------------------------------------Bloomberg:"Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Wall Street banks led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley stand to make a combined $120 million on General Motors Co.’s initial public offering. If it weren’t for" (competition from) "Goldman Sachs Group Inc., they could have made four times as much." "In a pitch to the U.S. Treasury in May, Goldman Sachs offered to accept a fee of 0.75 percent, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. That’s a fraction of the 3 percent banks typically charge on the largest IPOs and well below the 2 percent offered by Bank of America Corp. and other banks that presented to Treasury, said the people, speaking anonymously because the matter is private.Goldman Sachs, which had just been sued for fraud by federal regulators and has ties to GM competitor Ford Motor Co., didn’t get a top role in the IPO. The government imposed the fee pitched by Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn and his five-person team on all underwriters, angering the banks, the people said."
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Libyan ship to Gaza will have to Dock in Egypt
Editor Aug 15, 2010
A ship loaded with aid supplies for Gaza has docked in an Egyptian port, ending the latest attempt by activists to break Israel's Gaza blockade.The vessel was intercepted by Israeli naval ships off the coast of Gaza and forced to head south, the charity which chartered the ship said.The charity, headed by Col Muammar Gaddafi's son, said it wanted to reach Gaza, but would not risk violence.In May, Israeli forces clashed with another convoy, killing nine on board.
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Meet the Methodist Friends of Israel
Palestine Chronicle, Stuart Littlewood Aug 13, 2010
EditorCE: This story reveals that there are traditional methodist who seek peace, but it also reveals the extent to which Christian Zionism has found its way into the mainline, traditional Protestant sects, even in England where John Wesley started the Methodist church. Its express doctrine is contrary to Christian Zionism, yet some are busy at work trying to change Wesley's work. LITTLEWOOD WRITES: A "report 'Justice for Palestine and Israel' submitted to the Methodist Conference. Its recommendations include the following:"“In listening to Church Leaders and our fellow-Christians in Israel Palestine as well as leaders of Palestinian civil society we hear an increasing consensus calling for the imposition of boycott, divestment and sanctions as a major strategy of non-violent resistance to the Occupation. The Conference notes the call of the WCC [World Council of Churches] in 2009 for an ‘international boycott of settlement produce and services’ and calls on the Methodist people to support and engage with this boycott of Israeli goods emanating from illegal settlements (some Methodists would advocate a total boycott of Israeli goods until the Occupation ends).”LITTLEWOOD LAMENTS: "Lo and behold, before the dust could settle another new product from the Zionist drawing-board popped up, calling itself Methodist Friends of Israel. 'We are Christians who are members or adherents of the Methodist Church, who love Israel and want to bless her and who fully accept God’s everlasting covenant with His chosen people,' they announced.
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Consumer Prices in U.S. Increased 0.3% in June
Bloomberg News Aug 13, 2010
Editor CE: Bloomberg News Says: "The cost of living in the U.S. climbed in July for the first time in four months, pointing to a stabilization that may ease concern a slowdown in growth will spur deflation."---"The report showed rents, the biggest component in CPI, increased for a second month, and the cost of clothing, used cars and tobacco climbed, diminishing the risk of a protracted drop in prices that would hurt the economy. Economists say the lack of inflation gives Federal Reserve policy makers scope to leave the benchmark interest rate near zero into 2011 to help invigorate the economy."---Fed ActionFed policy makers this week left the overnight interbank lending rate target in a range of zero to 0.25 percent, where it’s been since December 2008. High unemployment, low inflation and stable price expectations “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period,” the U.S. central bank said, repeating language from every policy meeting since March 2009.
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International "Burn a Qur'an" Day planned for 9.11 Anniversary
New Trend Magazine Aug 12, 2010
International "Burn a Qur'an" Day planned for 9.11 Anniversary in AmericaBy Sis. Abigail AnthonyAn American church based in Florida is hosting an “International Burn a Qur'an Day” on this year's anniversary of 9/11. This church (or so-called “church”) is the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL.The maniac who “pastors” this church, Terry Jones, is calling for others to join-in with his congregation to burn copies of the Qur'an because he says: "We believe that Islam is of the Devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," (as told to CNN's reporter, Rick Sanchez earlier this year).The “church” boasts a sign on its lawn that says: “Islam is of the Devil”; and its website (www.doveworld.org ) is filled with anti-Islamic statements. When the pastor was asked why the church would post such a sign, he answered: “To expose Islam for what it is. It is a violent and oppressive religion that is trying to masquerade itself as a religion of peace, seeking to deceive our society.” (Question and answer posted on the churches website)The “church” website announces that it “offers free shelter and food to women who want to escape Islam”; it lists “Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran”; and it urges people to “show their support and take a stand” by purchasing a t-shirt that says “Islam is of the Devil” (the “church” actually sells these t-Shirts!)The Florida ‘church’ condemns other Christians (or so-called “christians”) for remaining silent about Islam, and encourages them to become bold and fearless and to finally speak-out about how they truly feel about Islam.I have lived in this country my entire life and I have witnessed and can testify to the evil, bitterness, and hatred many Americans and so-called “Christians” harbor in their hearts for Islam…. these people are not true followers of Jesus, but sadly, they represent the sentiments of the majority . As the Qur'an says to the true Muslims who follow the right guidance:“You are the best of the nations raised up for (the benefit of) men; you enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah; and if the followers of the Book had believed it would have been better for them; of them (some) are believers but most of them are transgressors.” -Holy Qur’an3:110New Trend MagazineNew Phone:410-497-4988. New Trend, P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
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Fed Increases Focus on Japan-Style Tools With Securities Floor
Bloomberg News Aug 12, 2010
"Editor CE: What does this quaint code language used by the Federal Reserve Banks, Wall Street, and the financial press really mean when they talk about expanding the FED's assets? Answer: The FED will print electronic Dollars which it will give to the Treasury to be wasted as it sees fit. The FED then gets back newly printed US Treasury bills and notes, which it lists on its books as "assets." This means the FED creates the money out of vapor and computer blips, and since they can not very well tell us about this scheme, they talk to each other in code. Note that the financial press is in on it, by not asking anywhere in this story what it means when the FED decides to "expand" or "shrink its assets".Bloomberg: The "Fed is aiming to stop the shrinkage in its balance sheet from prompting an increase in long-term borrowing costs, potentially allowing rates to fall further. While the move shows a change in policy direction away from exiting monetary stimulus, the Fed didn’t indicate it was ready to pursue larger-scale purchases of securities.".... A policy that associates the Fed with the Bank of Japan’s unsuccessful strategy of expanding reserves poses a risk for U.S. central bankers, said Stephen Stanley, a former Fed researcher. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has called Fed policy credit easing to differentiate it from Japan’s so-called quantitative easing from 2001 until 2006, which failed to spur bank lending in the world’s No. 2 economy.“I don’t think anyone in the market is fooled” by the distinction, said Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “That is a problem, both substantively and also from a perception standpoint.”
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GM Said to Aim for Up to $16 Billion in Stock Sale
Bloomberg.com Aug 12, 2010
Editor CE: So let's get this straight. First came "TARP", the Bush era scheme bail-out of the big banks. Then the US bought stock in GM that no one else would buy because it lost so much money in the loan business (banking). Now the US Treasury is selling its stock and no doubt we will be told what a wise investor the US Treasury is. In the meantime, the same bankers who were bailed out by TARP are lending money to GM, and will get giant fees for brokering all this stock back upon the public. Obviously the big banks win. But can anybody tell us, who is the loser in all these transactions? --- Bloomberg tells us: GM has secured a $5 billion revolving line of credit from a group of at least 15 banks as of last night New York time, said the person. More than half are named in the draft of the document as underwriters, including Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Credit Suisse Group AG.Selim Bingol, a GM spokesman, declined to comment on details of the IPO.“We will do an IPO when conditions are right for the company and in the markets,” he said in an e-mail.Most of the shares offered would come from the U.S. Treasury, the person said. The aim is to sell a fifth of the government’s 304 million shares, two people familiar with the plan said in June. That would reduce the Treasury’s holdings to less than 50 percent.
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Bedouin demolitions raising tensions in Israeli land dispute
JTA Aug 10, 2010
The government says the Bedouins are occupying the land illegally; the Bedouins refused the government's offer to let them stay as renters.Among the Bedouins of the Negev, the demolitions are stirring anger."These demolitions will lead to an intifada in the Negev," Bedouin and Israeli Arab Knesset member Talab El-Sana told reporters as he barricaded himself in one of the structures that ultimately was demolished.---The demolitions are the result of a dispute between the Bedouins and the Israeli government over rights to specific lands in the Negev comprising about 8,500 acres and 30,000 Bedouin. The Bedouins say the area has been in their families for generations, even if it has never been formally registered with the government. The Israeli government says the Bedouins are new to the land.
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Gaza is a prison camp, says (Prime Minister) David Cameron
Guardian, London Aug 10, 2010
Mr Cameron's comments came during a visit to Turkey, where relations withIsrael have been strained since Israeli troops stormed a flotilla of ships carrying supplies to Gaza in May, killing eight Turks and one Turkish-American.
Speaking in Ankara, the Prime Minister denounced the attack on the flotilla as ''completely unacceptable'' and restated his call for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a ''swift, transparent and rigorous'' inquiry.
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All-Women Ship Heads for Gaza and Waits for Clash with IDF
Arutz Sheve Aug 08, 2010
A “women-only” ship, complete with a nun and a heavily pregnant mother, has cleared political and technical obstacles and is set to sail for Gaza, presenting Israel with a new challenge. The ship is supposed to leave Tripoli by Sunday night, its co-coordinator, Hizbullah-backer Samar al-Hajj, told the London Guardian.---The sight of women—supposedly unarmed—facing Israeli naval commandos trying to stop it from breaking the sea embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza faces Israel with a new public relations challenge. ---"We will not even bring cooking knives” in order to prevent accusations that they are armed.===The sailing of the Mariam has been carefully geared for public consumption. Besides the nun and a pregnant woman, the crew includes Christians and Muslims, and the ship has been named after the Virgin Mary.
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Christian Zionist Congressmen Sponsor War Bill HR 1553
Charles E. Carlson Aug 05, 2010
"Whereas with the dawn of modern Zionism, the national liberation
movement of the Jewish people, some 150 years
ago, the Jewish people determined to return to their
homeland in the Land of Israel from the lands of their
dispersion;"
Mr. GOHMERT (for himself, Mr. AKIN, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr.
BISHOP of Utah, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. BONNER, Mr. BROUN of Georgia,
Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. CHAFFETZ, Mr.
CONAWAY, Mr. CULBERSON, Ms. FALLIN, Mr. FLEMING, Mr. FRANKS of
Arizona, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, Ms. GRANGER, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr.
HENSARLING, Mr. HERGER, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr.
LATTA, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr.
NEUGEBAUER, Mr. PENCE, Mr. PITTS, Mr. POSEY, Mr. PRICE of Georgia,
Mr. OLSON, Mr. ROONEY, Mrs. SCHMIDT, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr. SMITH
of Texas, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr.
BROWN of South Carolina, Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin, Mr. MCCLINTOCK,
Mr. JORDAN of Ohio, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. KINGSTON, and Mr.
CARTER) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
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The Palestinian Authority is imprisoning Gazans
Haaretz Jul 28, 2010
The Hamas government, which won the majority of the vote in democratic Palestinian legislative elections, is not recognized by most countries. Yet these countries warmly accept the Palestinian Authority government, which was appointed by the president and leader of the party that lost the election, Fatah.---The same government that includes a call to end the blockade on Gaza in every one of its statements, in practice aids in imprisoning the Gazans by preventing many of them from holding valid Palestinian passports. Not only does the Fatah government refuse to send blank passports to Gaza to be filled out, thus forcing Gazans to use the services of special go-between agencies which send the applications to Ramallah, but its general intelligence service even intervenes - as has been revealed lately - and in many cases vetoes passports for Gaza residents.Now, with Egypt easing the restrictions on entry through its border with Gaza, this arbitrary cruelty has become even more pronounced. The feeling of imprisonment, and the lies accompanying it, generates bitterness toward the government in Ramallah - even among those who are not Hamas supporters.Security forces in the West Bank continue to arrest people identified with Hamas. The fact that the vast majority of these people are imprisoned for extended periods without a trial or any charges brought against them, raises the suspicion that this practice is not meant to foil security risks, but to actually take revenge for Fatah's defeat in Gaza and to repress its political opponents.
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Oliver Stone: "Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust"
Haaretz, Israel Jul 26, 2010
Stone: "Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years."---"There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."The famed Hollywood director of such films as Platoon and JFK, also said that while "Hitler was a Frankenstein," there was also a "Dr Frankenstein."
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Israeli Right is now pushing for ‘one bi-national State'
Gilad Atzmon Jul 24, 2010
Israel should apply its law to “Judea and Samaria and grant citizenship
to 1.5 million Palestinians,” says Moshe Arens, a former Israeli defense
minister, a top leader in the Likud party and a political patron of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arens is not put off by those who
slander him for promoting the idea of a binational Jewish-Palestinian
state. "We are already a binational state," he says.--- The Israeli hawks want to
counter the inevitable 'demographic disaster'. They would offer West
Bank Palestinians Israeli ID cards, and offer them to “enjoy ice cream
in Tel Aviv” as long as they are kept as a minority. The Israeli hawks
ignore Gaza and the right of return. In practice they dismiss the
Palestinian cause for they are certain that the Jewish one is superior.
In short, this is not a solution or a resolution. It is just another
Zionist spin that is planted in our discourse in order to disseminate
confusion.
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Why Israel Can Always Count on the US Christian Zionists
Natasha Mozgovaya Jul 24, 2010
Whatever Happens, Israel Can Always Count On U.S. EvangelicalsThousands of Christian activists descended
on Washington this week in a show of strength by America's pro-Israel
Christians. Attendees of this year's gathering are
visibly different from those in the past: about one in five of the 5,000
participants was from a Hispanic Church.---Yet Hagee has courted controversy with
by offering financial backing to some settler organizations.
“Pastor Hagee
gives away a lot of money each year," says Brog. "Last year he gave away
approximately 10 million dollars and over 95 percent of it went to
charities within the green line. About 5 percent went to humanitarian
projects over the green line. Almost all of it went to the areas that
will be within the Israeli state following the agreement. With limited
exceptions he hasn’t been a really big supporter of settlements. It has
not been a focus of his giving and it certainly hasn’t been the focus of
his advocacy."---- Outside the conference hall, a small
group of protesters gathered outside the conference center, some of them
from the pacifistic anti-settlement group "Code Pink" and some with
posters calling Israel “Satan” and Pastor Hagee a “Zionist murderer”.
One conference
participant grew visibly upset, approaching several protesters and
hitting their posters with his bag
"I was not even talking to him, I was giving an
interview to a journalist, and this guy was coming by and swung his bag
at me and then he comes to other participants and swung it at them as
well," said a protester with the "Code Pink" group, Medea Benjamin, who
intends to complain to the police about the incident.---
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Bibi: “Christian Zionism preceded modern Jewish Zionism, and I think enabled it”
Unity Coalition For Israel Jul 23, 2010
"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government is well aware of the crucial importance of the evangelical Christian vote in the U.S. and has been maintaining a warm relationship with the stream. When Netanyahu addressed CUFI's Jerusalem Summit in March, he said: “Christian Zionism preceded modern Jewish Zionism, and I think enabled it.”Israelis and evangelicals are “all in the same boat”... Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
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Flotilla Ship from Lebanon to Gaza Threatened
AP Jul 22, 2010
"There are established routes for supplies to enter by land. That is
the way aid should be delivered to the people of Gaza," United Nations
spokesman for the Secretary-General Martin Nesirky said in a press
conference.
"Our stated preference has been and remains that aid
should be delivered by established routes, particularly at a sensitive
time in indirect proximity talks between Palestinians and Israelis,"
Nesirky added.
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Home Church: Skip the Sermon, Worship at Home
APThe members of this "house church" are part of w Jul 22, 2010
A study by the Barna Group, a firm specializing in data on religion and
society, estimates that 6 million to 12 million Americans attend house
churches. A survey last year by the Pew Forum found that 9 percent of
American Protestants only attended home services.---"I think part of the appeal for some in the house church movement is
the desire to return to a simpler expression of church," said Ed
Stetzer, a seminary professor and president of Lifeway Research, which
is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. "For many, church has
become too much (like a) business while they just want to live like the
Bible."
House church proponents claim their small groups are
sort of a throwback to the early Christian church in that they have no
clergy and everyone is expected to contribute to the teaching, singing
and praying.
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Israel launches campaign to halt Lebanon Gaza-bound flotilla
Haaretz, Israel Jul 22, 2010
Foreign Ministry instructs Israeli ambassadors to ask senior American, UN, EU
and Egyptian officials to pressure Syria and Lebanon to stop latest planned
flotilla from sailing from Lebanon to Gaza.Turkey is also still demanding that Israel apologize for the raid's
casualties - a demand Israel has rejected on the grounds that no casualties
would have occurred had its soldiers not been attacked. Recently, however,
Ankara has slightly softened its stance, saying it will hold off on insisting on
an apology until Israel completes its own probe of the raid.
Ankara is angry that Washington has not launched its own inquiries, as one of
the nine killed in the incident was an American citizen of Turkish descent.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even charged that Washington is
indifferent "because he was a Turk."
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Growing number of worshipers make themselves at home
Denver Post Jul 19, 2010
Barna said those most likely to attend conventional church are women, people older than 60, evangelicals and Midwesterners. The people most likely to attend house church are men, home-school families and Westerners.The Barna Group also found one way in which house-church members are unusual.Regular churchgoers, people who attend small groups and church volunteers are likely to be politically conservative or moderate. By contrast, at least one-quarter of house- church participants describe themselves as liberals, and nearly half are registered Democrats.
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Israel's Latest Remote Controlled by Females Killing Machine
Comprehensive Photography Jonathan Cook Jul 17, 2010
Spot and Shoot, as it is called by the Israeli military, may look like a video game but the figures on the screen are real people – Palestinians in Gaza – who can be killed with the press of a button on the joystick.The female soldiers, located far away in an operations room, are responsible for aiming and firing remote-controlled machine-guns mounted on watch-towers every few hundred meters along an electronic fence that surrounds Gaza.The system is one of the latest “remote killing” devices developed by Israel’s Rafael armaments company, the former weapons research division of the Israeli army and now a separate governmental firm.The Spot and Shoot system – officially known as Sentry Tech – has mostly attracted attention because it is operated by 19- and 20-year-old female soldiers, making it the Israeli army’s only weapons system operated exclusively by women.Female soldiers are preferred to operate remote killing devices because of a shortage of male recruits to Israel’s combat units. Young women can carry out missions without breaking the social taboo of risking their lives, said Mr Brom.The women are supposed to identify anyone suspicious approaching the fence around Gaza and, if authorized by an officer, execute them using their joysticks.
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Southern Baptist Convention 2010
Editor Jul 16, 2010
hift NAMB funding away from old-line Southern states to less-evangelized parts of the United States and Canada.1 percent of the Cooperative Program, the SBC's unified budget, from the Executive Committee to the International Mission Board.SBC president James Merritt. "We've been sitting on our deck-side lounges watching the ship sail into the iceberg of declining baptisms, diminishing missions and what has become a dead orthodoxy."
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No Defaults for States as California Favors Bonds Over Workers
Editor Jul 14, 2010
States cut spending by $74 billion since 2008 and more than half raised taxes and fees in 2009, the National Association of State Budget Officers said. That’s as the worst economy since the 1930s sent May unemployment as high as 14 percent in Nevada, topping the 9.5 percent U.S. rate, and deflated real estate values. As a result, state revenue fell $95 billion, or 12 percent, from September 2008 to the end of 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, pushing tax collections to 2006 levels.“It’s a tremendous amount of pain,” said Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes. Schools, foster homes, hospitals and other agencies as well as outside vendors will have to wait for their money until the state raises cash to pay bills, he said.
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Britain’s debt: The untold story
The Independent Jul 14, 2010
The debt primarily consists of the cost of public sector and state pensions, and of payments promised to private contractors under private finance initiatives. The true scale of Britain's national indebtedness was laid bare by the Office for National Statistics yesterday: almost £4 trillion, or £4,000bn, about four times higher than previously acknowledged. It quantifies the burden that will be placed on future generations, and it is the ONS's first attempt to draw together the "off-balance-sheet" liabilities that have been accumulated by the state
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Iran and the U.S.: Alms or arms?
Aljazeera, Dallas Darling Jul 14, 2010
Editor CE: This is an Arabic view of US militarism. It is bias but, sad to say, it it is also true.Dallas Darling: "The U.S. spends enormous sums of its time, energy, and resources on producing and stockpiling weapons systems, maintaining nuclear arsenals, and protecting its overseas empire with 800 owned and rented military bases scattered around the world. Its 85,000 private firms, employing millions of military workers, must forever manufacture and invent wars to exist. With two ongoing, lengthy, and parasitic conflicts in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, a militant ideology and aggressive ethos continues to permeate the United States. "
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Palestine Chronicle Interview of Gilad Atzmon
Brian Lenzo Jul 13, 2010
I asked my father once, when I started to learn about the expulsion, "Listen, man, you were nine years old in 1948. This land changed in front of your eyes. Convoys of refugees." My father told me, "I didn't see anything. I don't remember."I told him, "The way to Haifa was all Palestinian villages. Here." I had the map. "Here they are, and they're gone." My father just waved his hand as if to say, "Go away."We really have to start to understand the notion of phantasmic past. These people invented their past, as Shlomo Sand argues, and he is right. The Zionists invented their past with the hope that their future would shape accordingly. And their history doesn't have to be consistent, because they can invent it whenever they want. They cherry-picked the events that would support their narrative. It's very typical.Every time I think about my past, I find more and more things I should have recognized. I read and reviewed Ramzy Baroud's amazing book My Father Was a Freedom Fighter, and he talks about his father's experience and where he was born. It's amazing. I gave it to my mom, who read it and, like myself, was shocked. She said, "Where was this village?" We looked at the maps, and we couldn't figure it out.
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U.S. conservatives form new pro-Israel lobby group
Haaretz Jul 13, 2010
“We’re the pro-Israel wing of the pro-Israel community,” Politico quoted Kristol as saying. Bauer described the Obama presidency as “the most anti-Israel administration in the history of the United States.Under U.S. law the group does not have to disclose the sources of its funding but has already raised enough to finance its first television advertisement, which launched a savage attack on Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania.The ad slammed Sestak for signing a letter criticizing Israel’s blockade of Gaza while declining to add his name to a defense of Israel circulated by powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-conservatives-form-new-pro-israel-lobby-group-1.301678
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A Society Falling Apart Morally ---- Israel
Haaretz, Zeev Sternhell Jul 09, 2010
About the author:
Zeev Sternhell (Hebrew: זאב שטרנהל,born 1935) is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism.[1] Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.
Sternhell immigrated to Israel under the auspices of Youth Aliyah, and was sent to Magdiel youth village.[3] In the 1950s, Sternhell served as a platoon commander in the Golani infantry brigade, including the Sinai war. He fought as a reservist in the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and the Lebanon War. [2]
In 1957-1960, he studied history and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a BA cum laude. In 1969, he was awarded a Ph.D. from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris[4] for his thesis on The Social and Political Ideas of Maurice Barrès.
Sternhell lives in Jerusalem with his wife Ziva, an art historian. They have two daughters.
Zeev Sternhell startes:
"From the Second Lebanon War to the Gaza flotilla - and this period includes Operation Cast Lead - Israel's failures have been much greater than its successes. Against this backdrop, Israel's moral crisis is getting deeper all the time."
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Hedge Funds `Frozen in Headlights' Cut
Bloomberg News Jul 08, 2010
Hedge-fund managers, who oversee $1.67 trillion in assets,
are reluctant to put money to work as they are buffeted by a
wide range of often conflicting political and economic forces,
from fiscal policy in Europe and the U.S.,
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Liberty University Dean Ergun Caner Removed Because of Statements on Muslims
Washington Post Jul 03, 2010
In some accounts, Caner said he grew up in Turkey in a climate of
"Islamic jihad." In recorded sermons, he talked about coming to the
United States as a teenager and converting to Christianity. In one
sermon, he put it more bluntly, saying he was trained to do what the
Sept. 11 terrorists had done.
Indeed, bloggers found his parents' divorce records showing the family
moved to Ohio in 1970, when Caner was 3 or 4, contradicting his account
of teenage years on the cusp of Muslim extremism in Turkey. Bloggers
also pointed to suspicious mistakes an Islamic expert was unlikely to
make and timelines that did not match up.
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"Never has Israel had an enemy so perfectly attuned to the Jewish state's weaknesses"
Haaretz, Israel Editorial Jul 02, 2010
"How to win with Hamas"---Never has Israel had an enemy so perfectly attuned to the Jewish
state's weaknesses, so impervious to its strengths. For more than 20
years - ever since Israel inadvertently midwifed the founding of Hamas
at the outset of the first intifada - the organization has leveraged
Israel's every tactic into tangible, stepwise political gain.---Now, at long last, Benjamin Netanyahu has a chance to beat Hamas at its own game. He can free Gilad Shalit. Or he can do nothing, and lose again. It is finally time for Israel to radically revise its thinking about Hamas. To say that Israel's policies toward it have failed, is to only hint at the magnitude of the failure.
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Turkey Threatens to Ban Israeli Commercial Flights, Wants Compensation for Dead
Haaretz Jul 02, 2010
"Meanwhile, a Turkish human rights organization announced that preliminary findings indicate that some of the victims were killed by gunfire from inside Israel Navy helicopters and not by soldiers who had boarded the ship.They cite the angle of the wounds and the type of head wounds of some victims. However, because the bodies were washed before they were transferred to Turkey, it is difficult to determine if they were shot from close or long range."
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Watch the trailer for The Tillman Story, due for cinema release in August.
Youtube Preview Jul 01, 2010
Pat Tillman: Killed by Friendly Fire or Executed by His Own Government?Charles E. Carlson Apr 04, 2007http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1329The Bush Administration knew at the top that celebrity soldier Pat Tillman had been killed by persons in, or attached to his own unit, yet it purposely chose to muffle the incident for more than two years; lying to the family while lionizing the victim as a war hero. Circumstantial evidence, primarily illogical actions at very high levels of the administration, suggests more than a cover up of a “friendly fire” accident (a common mistake during war.) Had Tillman been accidentally shot by one of his own unit the whole matter could have been put to rest by holding a few harsh court marshals of those immediately involved, and issuing profuse apologies to everyone. But, America’s most famous volunteer soldier was, according to his brother and constant companion, on the verge of whistle-blowing the bankruptcy of US policy in Iraq. The untimely death of Tillman could not have been timelier for the top civilians in charge of making war, but covering for an assassination is not so simple.Watch the trailer for the new movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWmqogu3mZw
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Kenneth O_Keefe on HARDtalk Flotilla Survivor Speaks
BBC Jun 30, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3LvgCHjAg&feature=related
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