The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence? by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
12 May 2009

The Brad Blog, which picked up on the story of the strange death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi shortly after I published the first account in the Western media on Sunday evening, asked a question yesterday evening that I had been asking myself throughout the day:

So, it’s been about 16 hours since we covered indie journalist / historian / blogger Andy Worthington’s detailed report on the reported suicide of the man who falsely “confessed,” during torture, to a false tie between Iraq and al-Qaeda … As of this moment, not a single mainstream US newspaper or broadcast outlet has reported on the story. Is it not notable? Or are our newspapers just dead set on ensuring their irrelevance by continuing to not report on news that actually matters, no matter how widely it’s being reported in other parts of the world?

See the rest of the story here.

Reuters finally picked up on the story late yesterday afternoon, and secured a quote from Human Rights Watch researcher Heba Morayef, who said that she had seen al-Libi just two weeks ago, on April 27, during a visit to Abu Salim jail in Tripoli. She explained that he “appeared for just two minutes in a prison courtyard,” and that he “looked well, but was unwilling to speak” to the Human Rights Watch team, saying instead, “Where were you when I was being tortured in American prisons?”

Dick Cheney And The Death Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
Originally posted at the Future of Freedom Foundation
12 May 2009

For new readers, this article provides an overview of the story of the death of US “high-value detainee” Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, his “extraordinary rendition” by the CIA, and the torture that led to his false confession about a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. It draws on my article yesterday, announcing his death, and another article two weeks ago, Even in Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low, and it focuses, in particular, on Cheney’s role in using torture to manufacture a case for the invasion of Iraq, and in sidelining the FBI, who, in another world, might have secured useful intelligence from al-Libi and brought him to trial in the United States.

From Libya comes news of the death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a former “ghost prisoner” of the United States, whose false confession about a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein — extracted under torture in Egypt — was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The news will only add to the woes of the senior Bush administration officials who conceived the program of “extraordinary rendition” and torture within days of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and then, in a netherworld of secret memoranda, sought legal justification for their actions.

Dennis Kucinich: This Is A Hoax! It Is A Swindle! Wake Up America!

Dandelion Salad

C-SPAN
U.S. House of Representatives
House Session
May 12, 2009

https://www.c-span.org/video/?286274-102/house-session

Sibel Edmonds interview with Scott Horton + Transcript by Luke Ryland

by Luke Ryland
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Luke’s blog post
May 12, 2009

The always-excellent Scott Horton interviewed Sibel Edmonds for Antiwar Radio. Sibel was typically effective at highlighting the real issues. The audio is here, the transcript, including any errors, is mine.

————————

Scott Horton: I’m so excited to bring Sibel Edmonds back to the show. The precedent has been set, Sibel, you can tell me everything as long as you tell the Israeli embassy too. Go ahead!

Sibel Edmonds: (laughs) How are you Scott? Good to be on your show.

SH: I’m doing great. Welcome to the show. For people who don’t know, Sibel Edmonds was a translator for the FBI, a contractor after September 11. Fluent in a few different languages there from the old world, and uncovered a bunch of scandals and corruption and got booted out and is founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Her website is JustACitizen.com. She is, according to the ACLU, the most gagged person in American history.

Swine Flu May Be Human Error, Scientist Says; WHO Probes Claim

Dandelion Salad

By Jason Gale and Simeon Bennett
Bloomberg.com

May 12 Bloomberg — The World Health Organization is investigating an Australian researcher’s claim that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview today that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said that he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

[…]

via Swine Flu May Be Human Error, Scientist Says; WHO Probes Claim – Bloomberg.com.

h/t: CLG

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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H1N1-Mexican Flu-Swine Flu

The IMF Collects Debts on Behalf of the World’s Largest Banks by Michael Hudson

Dandelion Salad

by Michael Hudson
Global Research, May 11, 2009

Make Iceland pay for Incompetent British Bank Deregulation

Last month the G-20 authorized the International Monetary Fund to increase its loan resources to $1 trillion. It’s not hard to see why. Weakening currencies in the post-Soviet states threaten to raise default rates on foreign-currency mortgages as collapse of the Baltic real estate bubble drags down Swedish banks, while the Hungarian property plunge threatens Austrian banks. It seems reasonable to infer that creditor-nation banks hope to be bailed out. The IMF is expected to lend the Baltic, central European and other debtor-country governments money to pay them. These hapless debtor economies are then to follow IMF “conditionalities” to squeeze enough money out of their populations to pay foreign creditors – and repay the Fund by imposing yet more onerous taxes on their labor and industry, making them even more high-cost and therefore pushing them even further into trade and credit dependency. This is why there have been so many riots recently in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine, as was the case for so many decades throughout the Latin American countries that introduced the term “IMF riot” to the global vocabulary.

Russ Baker: Family of Secrets – The Bush Dynasty

Dandelion Salad

Bonnie Faulkner
Guns and Butter
KPFA
May 6, 2009

Guns and Butter – Family of Secrets

“Family of Secrets”, The Bush Dynasty, The Powerful Forces That Put It In The White House, and What Their Influence Means For America, with author Russ Baker.

Download:

http://kpfa.org/cgi-bin/gen-mpegurl.m3u?server=aud1.kpfa.org&port=80&file=dummy.m3u&mount=/data/20090506-Wed1300.mp3

Or listen: KPFA

h/t: ICH

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Kennedy-John F.

Osama bin Laden was US operator: President Asif Ali Zardari

Dandelion Salad

bekaskhan
May 08, 2009

Gregory asks Zardari Where is bin Laden, answer; ” In Lahor Under the Paki ISI Watch”

All of the high rank so called Al Qaeda members were operating & found in Punjab Pakistan, who were handled by the Paki ISI to the US, therefore, the answer is clear!!

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Osama bin Laden was US operator destabilising Benazir: Zardari

By Arun Kumar
ICH
May 11, 2009 “New Karala”

Washington, May 11: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has alleged that elusive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a US operator who had tried to destabilise his late wife Benazir Bhutto’s government back in 1989.

In fact, as premier Bhutto had “warned America about Osama bin Laden in 1989 with a call to then US president George H. Bush”, Zardari said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme Sunday.

“She rang senior Bush and asked of him: ‘Are you destabilizing my government?’ because he apparently referring to bin Laden paid the then opposition $10 million to overthrow the first woman elected prime minister in an Islamic country,” Zardari added.

“So, we knew that he was your operator,” said Zardari responding to a question about bin Laden’s whereabouts.

“You’ll have been there in Afghanistan for eight years. So you tell me. You lost him in Tora Bora, I didn’t, I was in prison,” he countered when asked where bin Laden was before hurling the allegation at Washington.

Asked if Pakistan was actively looking for bin Laden, Zardari replied: “The world is looking for him and we are part of the world look-out brigade.”

Zardari also reiterated his belief that bin Laden is dead. “I have a strong feeling and I have reason to believe that because I’ve asked my counterparts in the American intelligence agencies and they have not heard of him since seven years.”

— IANS

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Becoming What We Seek to Destroy by Chris Hedges

Desperate Pakistanis flee violence in Swat

Pakistan on Dandelion Salad

Mosaic News – 5/11/09: World News From The Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

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

linktv

Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute

“Fifty-Two Taliban Fighters Killed in Swat,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Netanyahu: Israel Ready to Renew Peace Talks,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Hamas Criticizes Pope Benedict,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Pope in Israel Calls for a Two-State Solution,” Dubai TV, UAE
“Peres Greets Pope in Official Residence,” IBA TV, Israel
“American kills 5 fellow soldiers at clinic in Iraq,” Press TV, Iran
“‘Promise of Good’ Military Operation Resumes in iraq,” Al-Iraqiya TV, Iraq
“The Sahwa Movement in Iraq,” Nile TV, Egypt
“Dealing With The Swine Flu Epidemic,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Iran Frees American Journalist Roxana Saberi,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

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Richard C. Cook: Whistleblowing Isn’t for Sissies (no longer available)

Updated: May 21, 2009 added video

An Interview with Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
richardccook.com

by Vince Reardon
The Daily Message Point
May 12, 2009

Challenger Revealed
order here
Originally uploaded by Dandelion Salad

“Flight controllers here are looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously, a major malfunction.” These somber words of Steve Nesbit, NASA’s Mission Control spokesman, were said minutes after the worst disaster in the history of the American space program.

Jamaica in the 1970s and 1980s (videos no longer available)

Dandelion Salad

Sorry the videos are no longer available.

AfricansArise
February 26, 2009

Michael Manley’s newly elected government built up close ties with Fidel Castro’s Cuba and brought in a wave of social reforms. Inevitably, this attracted the negative attention of the US.