The Flashlight, Jan. 26 - Feb. 3, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, Jan. 27 – Feb. 2, 2007
Iraq
CNN 2-1. A federal oversight agency has found that despite the $108 billion dollars of US tax money budgeted for reconstruction in Iraq, Iraqi oil and electricity production are still below their pre-war levels. The agency said that waste and fraud were responsible for the failure of many projects.
US Politics
NY Times 1-27 Editorial. The Bush Administration is still obsessed with secrecy, assaulting the rule of law, and refusing to heed both expert advice and the facts on the ground. Cheney has said that whatever Congress decides about the situation in Iraq, “it won’t stop us” from continuing the war there.
Senator Dick Durbin has said that to call Cheney “delusional” is too mild. Said Durbin: “It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions to destroy America’s reputation in the world, to exhaust the US military, to fail too catch Osama, to enhance Iran’s power in the Middle East, and to send American troops to train and arm Iraqi forces so that they can work against American interests.”
UPI 1-27. Poll of US opinion on Iraqi oil: 32.7% of US adults said that Iraqi oil was a major factor in the decision to invade Iraq, while 40.7% said it was somewhat of a factor.
NYTimes 1-27. The State Dept. says that Israel may have violated agreements with the US when it fired American-supplied cluster bombs inside southern Lebanon last summer. Since the war 30 Lebanese civilians have died and 180 have been wounded by these tiny bombs lying around on the ground. A similar thing happened in 1982, the first time Israel invaded Lebanon.
NYTimes 1-27. Estimates of the number of peace marchers in Washington ran from tens of thousands to 400,000. The protestors included Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, and Jane Fonda, the “Iraqi veterans against war,” and “Veterans for Peace.” The march was organized by United for “Peace and Justice”, which claims to have a national organization and 71,400 local units.
Christian Science Monitor. 1-29. At Quaker-oriented Guilford College in North Carolina, a group of football players beat up three Palestinian students. This was especially surprising and shocking since the college welcomes many Palestinians from the West Bank. The case is under investigation.
Washington Post, 2-2. Democrats and Republicans. In Congress are negotiating and maneuvering to pass a bill condemning Bush’s escalation in Iraq. The problem in the Senate is to obtain the necessary votes (60) to prevent a filibuster, so there is much arm-twisting of rebellious Republican Senators..
Book Review: Norman Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah. University of California Press, 2005.
Using the records of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem et al. Professor Finkelstein found that the Israeli security forces routinely torture Palestinian prisoners, using many of the same methods of torture as those used at Abu Ghraib: They put prisoners in very cold rooms without food, water, toilet, or medicine for hours at a time and days at time. They also hood prisoners, sexually assault them, apply electric shock to the most sensitive parts of the body, beat all parts of the body of , etc.
In 2001, Sharon started a campaign to liquidate Palestinian resistance leaders not in Israeli custody. These men were not given a trial. They were singled out by informers and destroyed, sometimes by an Israeli helicopter shooting a missile at a moving automobile. These killings are called “pre-emptive self-defense.”
Iraq
CNN 2-1. A federal oversight agency has found that despite the $108 billion dollars of US tax money budgeted for reconstruction in Iraq, Iraqi oil and electricity production are still below their pre-war levels. The agency said that waste and fraud were responsible for the failure of many projects.
US Politics
NY Times 1-27 Editorial. The Bush Administration is still obsessed with secrecy, assaulting the rule of law, and refusing to heed both expert advice and the facts on the ground. Cheney has said that whatever Congress decides about the situation in Iraq, “it won’t stop us” from continuing the war there.
Senator Dick Durbin has said that to call Cheney “delusional” is too mild. Said Durbin: “It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions to destroy America’s reputation in the world, to exhaust the US military, to fail too catch Osama, to enhance Iran’s power in the Middle East, and to send American troops to train and arm Iraqi forces so that they can work against American interests.”
UPI 1-27. Poll of US opinion on Iraqi oil: 32.7% of US adults said that Iraqi oil was a major factor in the decision to invade Iraq, while 40.7% said it was somewhat of a factor.
NYTimes 1-27. The State Dept. says that Israel may have violated agreements with the US when it fired American-supplied cluster bombs inside southern Lebanon last summer. Since the war 30 Lebanese civilians have died and 180 have been wounded by these tiny bombs lying around on the ground. A similar thing happened in 1982, the first time Israel invaded Lebanon.
NYTimes 1-27. Estimates of the number of peace marchers in Washington ran from tens of thousands to 400,000. The protestors included Jesse Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, and Jane Fonda, the “Iraqi veterans against war,” and “Veterans for Peace.” The march was organized by United for “Peace and Justice”, which claims to have a national organization and 71,400 local units.
Christian Science Monitor. 1-29. At Quaker-oriented Guilford College in North Carolina, a group of football players beat up three Palestinian students. This was especially surprising and shocking since the college welcomes many Palestinians from the West Bank. The case is under investigation.
Washington Post, 2-2. Democrats and Republicans. In Congress are negotiating and maneuvering to pass a bill condemning Bush’s escalation in Iraq. The problem in the Senate is to obtain the necessary votes (60) to prevent a filibuster, so there is much arm-twisting of rebellious Republican Senators..
Book Review: Norman Finkelstein, Beyond Chutzpah. University of California Press, 2005.
Using the records of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem et al. Professor Finkelstein found that the Israeli security forces routinely torture Palestinian prisoners, using many of the same methods of torture as those used at Abu Ghraib: They put prisoners in very cold rooms without food, water, toilet, or medicine for hours at a time and days at time. They also hood prisoners, sexually assault them, apply electric shock to the most sensitive parts of the body, beat all parts of the body of , etc.
In 2001, Sharon started a campaign to liquidate Palestinian resistance leaders not in Israeli custody. These men were not given a trial. They were singled out by informers and destroyed, sometimes by an Israeli helicopter shooting a missile at a moving automobile. These killings are called “pre-emptive self-defense.”
posted by THE FLASHLIGHT at 5:21 AM
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