Mosaic News – 4/8/09: World News From The Middle East

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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

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“Iraqis React to Obama’s Surprise Visit,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Iraqi Government Finally Pays Awakening Council Troops,” Baghdad TV, Iraq
“Iraq Orphans: The Untold Story,” Alsumaria TV, Iraq
“Twelve Hurt in West Bank Settlers’ Rampage,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Israeli foreign minister questioned in bribe case,” IBA TV, Israel
“History of US-Iran Nuclear Relations,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“Egypt’s Organ Trade Mafia,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Rwanda’s churches and the genocide,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

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No End In Sight By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
April 08, 2009 “Information Clearing House”

It’s been 21 months since two Bear Stearns hedge funds defaulted setting off a series of events which have led to the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression. No one expected the financial meltdown to hit this hard or spread this fast. The failure at Bear triggered a freeze in the secondary market where mortgage loans are repackaged into securities and sold to investors. That market is now completely paralyzed cutting off 40 percent of funding for consumer and business loans and thrusting the broader economy into a deep recession. Banks and financial institutions have been forced to curtail their off-balance sheet operations and build their reserves which have ballooned from $45 billion to nearly $700 billion in the last 6 months alone. Like millions of homeowners who have seen their home equity vanish and their retirement savings slashed in half, the banks are hunkering down hoping they can outlast the deflationary hurricane ahead.

The deteriorating economic conditions have taken their toll on consumer confidence and forced businesses to lay off employees that won’t be needed during the slowdown. The system is bursting with overcapacity. Demand is falling faster than any time since the 1930s. Inventories will have to be trimmed and budgets cut to muddle through the down-times. Foreign trade has slowed to a crawl, auto sales are down by 40 percent or more, and unemployment is rising at 650,000 per month. Policymakers have pushed through a $800 billion stimulus plan, but it won’t be nearly enough to stop the steady rise in unemployment or take up the slack in an economy where industrial output has been cut in half, new home construction has dropped to record lows, and manufacturing has fallen off a cliff. Economists warn that when governments don’t step in and provide stimulus to increase aggregate demand, consumers cut back sharply on spending and push the economy deeper into depression.

Revive Lincoln’s Monetary Policy: An Open Letter To President Obama by Dr. Ellen Hodgson Brown

by Dr. Ellen Hodgson Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
April 9, 2009

Dear President Obama:

The world was transfixed on that remarkable day in January when, to poetry, song, and dance, you gazed upon Abraham Lincoln’s likeness at the Lincoln Memorial and searched for wisdom to navigate these difficult times. Indeed, you have so many things in common with that venerable President that one might imagine you were his reincarnation in different dress. You are both thin and wiry, brilliant speakers, appearing on the national stage at pivotal times. Fertile imaginations could envision you coming back triumphantly as one of those slaves you freed, to prove once and for all the proposition that all men are created equal and can achieve great things if given a fighting chance. But as Wordsworth said, our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; and if that is true, you may have forgotten a more subtle form of slavery from which Lincoln freed his countrymen, even if you were there at the time. You may have forgotten it because it has been omitted from the history books, leaving Americans ill-equipped to interpret the lessons of our own past. This letter is therefore meant to remind you.

When Atheism Becomes Religion: Americas New Fundamentalists (Chris Hedges) + Hitchens on Thom Hartmann

Interview with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
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thomhartmann

Thom challenges author Chris Hedges, Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute http://www.thenation.com. Check out http://www.thomhartmann.com.

Miriam Pemberton: Obama’s military budget

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TheRealNews

While media plays up program cuts, total defense budget surpasses Bush by $20 B

Produced by Jesse Freeston

UK Foreign Minister Miliband calls for united front to deal with Iran

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
9 April, 2009

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSTRE53778220090408

excerpts from: Britain calls for united front to deal with Iran

by Souhail Karam, Reuters, 8 April 2009

“I know that many countries in the region are concerned not just about the dangers of Iran’s nuclear program but also (about) Iranian activities in the region that cause instability in many countries of the Middle East. I think it’s very important that there is a united front between the countries of Europe, America, Russia and China and countries of the Gulf in addressing the range of issues that are posed by the Iranian regime.” [UK Foreign Minister David Miliband, Riyadh, 8 April 2009]

[…]

Britain was among six powers which said Wednesday they would invite Iran for talks to seek a diplomatic solution to the long-running dispute over its nuclear program.

see

Obama: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat to its neighbors

Iran on Dandelion Salad

Iran Israel US Nukes

Nukes

“Iran + Nuclear” posts

Red Cross report details CIA war crimes By Tom Eley

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By Tom Eley
http://www.wsws.org
9 April 2009

This week, the New York Review of Books released the full version of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report detailing US Central Intelligence Agency torture of 14 “high value” terroristse suspects at prison “black sites” from 2001 until 2006. Earlier, it had produced excerpts of the report and an analysis by author Mark Danner.

The report makes explicit that the CIA violated the laws of war and basic human rights in its treatment of the prisoners, which included beatings, humiliations, sleep deprivation, and suffocation by water (“waterboarding”), among dozens of specifically named acts of brutality.

At several points, the 40-page report refers to CIA actions as illegal according to international law. The ICRC, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is the body tasked with overseeing observance of the laws of war. That it has declared acts carried out by US intelligence personnel as torture carries enormous legal weight.

[…]

via Red Cross report details CIA war crimes.

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Fake Faith and Epic Crimes By John Pilger

Farce at Guantánamo, as cleared prisoner’s habeas petition is denied by Andy Worthington

Rachel Maddow: Why Gitmo Accountability Matters

Countdown: Obama adm. actively shielding Bush, Cheney + Maddow: Why do we need to outsource justice?

Ray McGovern: Holding Our Leaders Accountable (must-see)

Torture

Bridging the Rural Digital Divide: FCC Starts Work on National Broadband Strategy

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Democracy Now!
4.8.09

Bridging the Rural Digital Divide: FCC Starts Work on National Broadband Strategy

The Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, begins work today on a yearlong national broadband strategy to bring high-speed broadband internet into every American home. Under the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus plan, the FCC is responsible for developing a strategy to improve broadband coverage and present it to Congress in February of 2010. We speak with Wally Bowen, executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network in Asheville. [includes rush transcript]

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Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: The Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, began work yesterday on a yearlong national broadband strategy to bring high-speed broadband internet into every American home. Under the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus plan, the FCC is responsible for developing a strategy to improve broadband coverage and present it to Congress in February of 2010.

Acting FCC Chair Michael Copps has described the plan as, quote, “the biggest responsibility given to the FCC since the Telecom Act of 1996.” Improving and expanding internet service is expected to be a central part of the plan.

Countdown: Warrantless Wiretapping & The Military Industrial Complex

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VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://earth2obama.org/

April 08, 2009 MSNBC Keith Olbermann

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Pt 2

UN calls for ceasefire fire in Sri Lanka

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TheRealNews

UN responds to Tamil protests internationally calling for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka to avoid blood shed

The UN is calling on the government of Sri Lanka to declare a ceasefire amid a looming humanitarian crisis and pending potential blood shed in the north-east of Sri Lanka. The Tamils in the diaspora are in seamless protests calling for international attention on the crisis. Dr. R. Cheran, Assistant Professor, University of Windsor, Ontario Canada sheds light on the crisis and explains why the government of Sri Lanka will likely not honor such a request by the UN.