ACLU: MILITARY SKIRTING LAW TO SPY

NEW YORK - The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans' Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, the ACLU said Tuesday.

RECTIFICATION: "RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE SEES U.S. MILITARY BUILDUP ON IRAN BORDER"

The Ria Novosti article was not published on March 27, 2008 but a year earlier on March 27, 2007. It was posted on the Global Research website on March 28, 2007. It was one among several articles which we published on the US-NATO military build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean. The US-NATO-Israeli threat to conduct a war directed against Iran is noneless real.

OCCUPATION FORCES NO LONGER CONTROL THE GREEN ZONE

BAGHDAD, Apr 2 (IPS) - Despite the huge media campaign led by U.S. officials and a complicit corporate-controlled media to convince the world of U.S. success in Iraq, emerging facts on the ground show massive failure.

REP. JEFFERSON’S LOBBYIST BROTHER INDICTED

Keeping with a family tradition of starring in public corruption schemes, the brother of a Louisiana congressman charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes has himself been indicted for bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

JAIL FOR CORRUPT U.N. CHIEF

The United Nations chief who openly accepted cash, real estate, wild parties and hookers as bribes has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

WEDNESDAY: 45 IRAQIS KILLED, 84 WOUNDED

At least 45 Iraqis were killed and 84 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. Clashes involving Mahdi Army members and Iraqi security are now over, but the Iraqi government is still engaging in minor chest thumping in the port city of Basra and keeping Sadr City surrounded. No Coalition deaths were reported.

REPORT RECOMMENDS PETRAEUS BE QUIZZED BY CONGRESS ON IRAQ WAR CRIMES

Hastings on Hudson, NY -- Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force Iraq must be held accountable for systematic violations of international law by US forces in Iraq when he appears before Congress next week, argues a new war crimes report published today by ConsumersforPeace.org on its website.

TORTURE LAWSUIT UPDATE: SECRET 2003 MEMO SHOWS PRESIDENT BUSH GAVE HIMSELF UNLIMITED POWER

Washington, DC (AP) — The Pentagon on Tuesday made public a now-defunct legal memo that approved the use of harsh interrogation techniques against terror suspects, saying that President Bush's wartime authority trumps any international ban on torture.

GENERAL PETRAEUS AND A HIGH LEVEL SUICIDE IN IRAQ

Before putting a bullet through his head, Westhusing had been deeply disturbed by abuses carried out by American contractors in Iraq, including allegations that they had witnessed or even participated in the murder of Iraqis. His suicide note included claims that his two commanders tolerated a mission based on "corruption, human right abuses and liars." One of those commanders: the future leader of the "surge" campaign in Iraq, Gen. Petraeus.

POLLAN: NUTRITION "SCIENCE" HAS HIJACKED OUR MEALS -- AND OUR HEALTH

According to Michael Pollan, most of what Americans consume isn't food. He calls it "edible foodlike substances."

THE FBI HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO ABOUT KING'S MURDER

"Dangerous," "evil," "colossal fraud," were the choice terms that then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and other top FBI officials routinely spit out about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They didn't stop at name calling. They talked ominously of "neutralizing" him as an effective leader. And even more ominously they sent him a letter flatly saying "King you are done."

NATO ENDORSES U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE PLAN

BUCHAREST, Romania, April 3 -- President Bush won support from NATO on Thursday for his plans to build a limited missile defense system in Eastern Europe and finalized a separate agreement to station part of it in the Czech Republic.

FORMER GOVERNOR JESSE VENTURA: WTC COLLAPSE A CONTROLLED DEMOLITION

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura vehemently savaged the official 9/11 story on a syndicated national radio show today, saying the WTC collapsed like a controlled demolition and was pulverized to dust as he also highlighted the impossible 10 second free fall speed of the towers.

CHILDREN RAPED AT ABU GHRAIB, PENTAGON HAS VIDEOS

" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS DOCUMENTS 73,846 DEATHS FROM IRAQ WARS AS OF MAY 2007

U.S. media organizations like CNN, NBC, FOX and others recently reported that the death total of U.S. combatants in Iraq War had just reached 4,000. The problem is that this data seems to be an intentional distortion.

THE SCHOOL CROTCH INSPECTOR

There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it's perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible.

PENTAGON: COLLEGES MUST HAND OVER NAMES

The Defense Department has announced a new get-tough policy with colleges and universities that interfere with the work of military recruiters and Reserve Officer Training Corps programs.

CORRUPTION FUELING CANADA'S MERGE INTO U.S.

Multinational Big Business interests linked to the U.S. political-military-industrial complex, are now coordinating the elites of the Conservative and Liberal Parties, as "One Big Party". This is being done through the prism of the Security and Prosperity and Partnership North American Union (SPP-NAU) agenda. This SPP-NAU agenda, was orchestrated directly and in violation of Canadian sovereignty, through the Office of U.S. President George W. Bush, as corroborated by the official SPP.gov website.

Of course, according to Odrama, this is a figment of your imagination -- ZDN

A CONVERSATION WITH DANIEL ELLSBERG

Restoring the Constitution

The fact is Bush and Cheney operate under a theory of government that is at odds with our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and they have pretty much enacted their theory. In other words, it's not a matter of changing to a new government, it's restoring checks and balances and an oversight function for Congress and a preeminent role for Congress in the issue of war and peace, which has been basically rejected or destroyed by this administration - and, as I say, with some precedents earlier. Article 1, section 8, which puts the power of war and peace with Congress, not the executive branch, has been under, let's say, neglect ever since Harry Truman went to war in Korea in 1950 without a declaration of war, and right up to the previous administration - the Clinton administration - which conducted an air war in Kosovo and Serbia without Congressional declaration.

SOLAR THERMAL POWER

An area of desert around 250 km by 250 km covered with CSP power generation could supply all the world's current electricity demand.

HE’S ‘MCSAME’ ON SOCIAL SECURITY, TOO

The most puzzling aspect of John McCain’s political persona is his habitual attraction to George W. Bush’s bad ideas. Their shared enthusiasm for invading Iraq and then escalating the war is why “McSame” will soon become the new shorthand for the Arizona Republican, replacing “maverick”—but that isn’t the only reason. He doesn’t just endorse the disastrous foreign policy initiatives; he loves the failed domestic policy schemes, too.

SILVER PLATTER

IRAQ ON A SILVER PLATTER

GOODYEAR WORKER IDENTIFIED IN TASER INCIDENT

Early reports indicated Haake had been suffering from a medical condition and had resisted emergency personnel's efforts to subdue him. The sheriff's office said after several attempts to control Haake, a deputy used a Taser on him.

HELTER SKELTER

FLASHBACK: MCCAIN VOTED AGAINST MLK DAY IN 1983

I was talking to Howie Klein a couple of day ago about the anniversary of MLK’s “I Have A Dream I remembered that McCain voted against the proposed national holiday back in 1983.

POOR MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

They feel so sad about screwing additional taxes and inflation out of the American people to fuel their adventure in Iraq, as they pour rivers of gasoline and diesel into the sand. But none of this socialist petro-guzzling has any any effect on the global oil price, they say. Trust them in this. Have they ever misled you?

THE EVIL OF NATO

But aren't these anti-missile systems "defensive"? Think of it this way: if the neighborhood bully, who is always beating people up, comes out one Saturday morning dressed from head to toe in body armor, does anyone think this is "defensive"?

MORE REMARKS ON THE DEPOPULATION OF THE GREEN ZONE

But the most important phenomenon, which overshadows most of the other developments in Iraq, is the exposure of the Green Zone, the most secure location in Iraq, to daily rocket bombardments, something that has motivated many diplomats and journalists and parliamentarians who went there seeking safety, to flee from the Green Zone to outside of Iraq, following the fall of a large number of injured persons in this attack.

THE GOOD GUYS DANCE WHILE THE BEAT GOES ON

While the general public sits, in a drugged stupor, as hallucinating television sets bring them Donald Duck reporting the news, or Porky Pig from the runway at Milan, other things are being said and done which might have escaped the notice of the wider world. Japanese lawmaker and former Chief Cabinet Secretary under Koizumi has had a lot to say about 9/11 and then there is the former President of Italy as well as the one time head of their secret service who has said 911 was done by the CIA and Mossad and then there is the former German Minister Andreas Von Buelow who has something to say and all those professional airline pilots who have something to say as well as all those scholars and scientists who have something to say and then, there’s me. I’ve got something to say too and we’ll get to that.

OLIVER STONE RUSHES TO FINISH BUSH FILM

Script asks: 'How did an alcoholic bum become most powerful leader in world?'

TAX MY RICH WHITE TORTURER

Just so we have this straight: You are not paying taxes merely to fund torture and bomb-dropping and the killing of countless innocents in Iraq in a futile and lost war that's not really a war and is far more of a massive fiscal, tactical and moral failure which will end up costing the nation an estimated $3 trillion, burn through any remaining sense of national dignity and leave repercussions that will last for generations.

Ha. You should be so lucky. Because your tax money is right now also funding the Fed's unprecedented and rather shocking multibillion-dollar bailout of rich bankers and fund managers who have, through their greed and excess and with the implied blessing of former Chairman Alan Greenspan (whom many consider the architect of the collapse in the first place), helped bring about what is shaping up to be the worst fiscal crisis since World War II.

DICK CHENEY’S MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED: SAUDI ARABIA AND ISRAEL PREPARE FOR NUCLEAR WAR WHILE IRAN TRIES TO BROKER PEACE

Dick Cheney wrapped up his tour of the Middle East last week and it appears that he has accomplished his main objective: to prepare his allies for the proliferation of war.

KILLER VIDEO: 'LAPDOGS OF THE CORPORATE PRESS'

ISRAEL PLANS LARGEST ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT

Palestinians, the international community, and a large number of Israelis, believe the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are clearly illegal, and all should be uprooted as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

PIZZA DRIVER: 'THERE WAS NO WAY OUT'

A Des Moines pizza driver who was suspended from his job after he shot an armed robber said today he has been overwhelmed by support from people who cheered what happened.

“But no one had contacted me directly about a job offer,” said James William Spiers III, 38, who was sent home by Pizza Hut managers after he fired multiple shots at a man who put a gun to his head

FOUR 9/11 SUSPECTS NEVER INTERROGATED

Sibel Edmonds, a former paid Turkish language translator for the FBI, has just gone public with a tale of an international nuclear smuggling ring that has been operating successfully inside the United States.

Edmonds gave her testimony in a closed session of Congress and to the 9/11 commission, but nothing came of it. The Ashcroft Justice Department then issued a gag order on her, but because of the serious nature of the situation she opted to tell her story.

FORCED DRUGGING: 5 YEAR SPRAYING OF LEVEL 3 TOXIN ON ENTIRE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

If you have to swallow a drug you don´t want to take, that is forced drugging. If it is pumped into your veins, that is forced drugging. If you are forced to breath it, and so is your dog, your spouse, your infant, your grandmother and your neighbor, that´s forced drugging, too. And that is precisely what is going on in the San Francisco Bay area. And if you are breathing a sigh of relief because you don´t live in the Bay area, don´t.