Monthly archives for January, 2009
Written by President Obama, Don’t Become Complicit in Their Crimes!
By Cynthia McKinney
“Mr. President: The Bush Administration lied to the people in pursuit of war. As a result, at least one million Iraqis and thousands of U.S. soldiers are dead. Thousands more are maimed. The stature of the U.S. is severely damaged. The U.S. Constitution is in shreds after signing statements, wiretaps, and torture. Your obligation is to investigate and bring to justice those who violated U.S. and international law, such as the torture treaty. Failure to do so makes you complicit in their crimes.”
‘Buy American’ rule in U.S. stimulus bill could cost Canada jobs
There is unsettling news for Canada in U.S. President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill, or at least in the version approved Wednesday night by the House of Representatives.
It says that steel used in public projects under the $819-billion US plan must be made in the United States, an idea likely to cause trade disputes and block sales by Canadian mills.
Arar ‘shocked’ name came up at hearing for Khadr
TORONTO – Maher Arar, the Canadian software engineer who was tortured in Syria after he was illegally sent there by the United States, said Thursday he was stunned the Americans had again dragged up his name in connection with terrorism.
Iraq Bans Blackwater
The Iraqi government has informed the US embassy today that it will decline to renew Blackwater Worldwide’s license to operate in the nation. This will require the security contractors, still being used by the State Department, to leave the nation once the joint US-Iraq committee finishes drawing up its formal guidelines for contractors.
According to Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the decision came as a result of “improper conduct and excessive use of force” by the contractor, still infamous in Iraq for its 2007 killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad.
Barack Obama’s change reportedly includes military draft
Comments made by Barack Obama during his Presidential campaign suggest that his vision of a needed “national sacrifice” may be a reference to the need to reinstate a military draft. Would this be achieved by some sort of self-inflicted wound? While John McCain had categorically declared that he was against any such military draft, it appears that the need for “sacrifices ahead” may be a public relation preparations for a draft.
Cuba asks for Guantanamo Bay return
Cuba has called for the US naval base in Guantanamo to be returned to its territory and wanted a UN torture inspector to visit the island.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque on Wednesday said that US President Barack Obama’s decision to close within a year the “war on terror” prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay was positive but insufficient.
Cuba expects that Obama’s decision to close down the Guantanamo prison camp “is followed by the decision to close down the base and return that territory to the Cubans,” a base that the United States “really does not need for its security and defense,” Perez Roque said.
EXCLUSIVE: Loophole allows terrorist detentions
President Obama’s executive order closing CIA “black sites” contains a little-noticed exception that allows the spy agency to continue to operate temporary detention facilities abroad.
Mullen: Using force against Iran still an option
American military force against Iran remains an option, though it would be a “last resort,” US Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
Mullen emphasized, however, the importance he placed on engagement with the Islamic Republic, particularly when it came to Afghanistan, at the same time that he called for stricter UN resolutions to block Iran’s weapons smuggling abilities.
In a rare press conference with the foreign media Tuesday, he alluded to a recent US interception of a ship sailing under a Cypriot flag with weapons that America believed had come from Iran and were heading toward Syria, “where we think they will get in the next day or so.”
That was because, while American forces could board the ship, they could not seize the weapons under current international law, Mullen said.
