> Below is plenty of testimony that indicates that the tyrants in
> Washington are guilty of warmongering and genocide. When you consider
> all the needless deaths and misery caused by their economic and
> militaristic terrorism, it's not hard to understand why so many of our
> brothers in Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Venezuela and other parts of the world
> call Bush - "the devil"! The bastards hide behind the American flagand
> are serving the filthy rich, not the people. They are pissing on the
> people. They think that life is a game and they who amass the most
> money are the winners. They are not troubled in the least if their
> money is soaked with the blood of children. War is very profitable for
> them. Peace is the only obstacle to that 500+ billion dollar a year
> industry. That's why there are huge profits and no peace. They love
> money more than anything else. They have no problems with their money
> being soaked with the blood of innocent children.
> RH
>
> Pictures of Destruction and Civilian Victims of the Anglo-American
> Aggression in Iraq
>
> These photos are only of a very tiny fraction of the thousands of Iraqi
> Civilian Victims who have been terrorised, humiliated, injured, maimed
> and killed through British and American bombing of civilian areas in
> various cities of Iraq. Due to insecurity, independent reporters could
> not and still can not reach many areas to photograph and report the
> atrocities. Several independent reporters and journalists were
> deliberately bombed to prevent them reporting the atrocities.
>
> Please note that some of these pictures are not suitable for small
> children and those who have weak hearts.
>
>
http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm
>
> =================
>
> Many similar pictures could also be taken of the results of the US
> taxpayer funded attack against Lebanon.
>
> EMPIRE OF SHAME, by Jean Ziegler
> Book review by Luc Guillory
>
> Well-known activist and writer Professor Jean Ziegler is the UN Special
> Rapporteur on the Right to Food and is also a senior Professor at the
> University of Geneva and the University of Sorbonne, Paris. He teaches
> sociology and has written many books, including books about hunger. In
> his book L'Empire de la Honte (Empire of Shame), he explains the
> mechanisms which enable multinational corporations to behave like new
> feudal rulers, and how they use debt as a weapon of mass destruction to
> force national governments and their populations to give up their
> sovereignty and freedom for the sake of vested interests.
>
> "Eu tenho cola, porque no tenho vida - I have glue [to sniff]
> because I have no life," a little girl in Recife, Brazil, told Jean
> Ziegler while he was investigating the impact of debt and hunger in
> that country. The reality of hungry or ill children with no hope,
> future, education or family life can be directly attributed to the
> country's foreign debt and its relations with rich countries and
> multinational businesses, Ziegler says.
>
> Between 1964 and 1985 Brazil's debt increased by 50 per cent due to
> military expenditure incurred under the pretext of protecting
> "national security". Foreign investors were offered incentives like
> tax cuts and other financial benefits but since Brazil could not make
> such provisions it was forced to become financially dependent on the
> IMF, the Eximbank (an agency of the US government providing aid in
> financing and facilitating imports and exports), and other private
> Western banks.
>
> Debt trap
>
> In 1979, the USA raised its interest rates, and Brazil fell into the
> debt crisis trap of having to take new loans in order to be able to pay
> off interest on previous loans. Years later, President Fernando Cardoso
> chose to raise interest rates in Brazil to attract desperately needed
> foreign capital. The immediate impact on small businesses was
> catastrophic; unable to get access to credit, they had to cut back on
> their activities and dismiss employees. Worse still, the rise in
> interest rates fuelled speculation. Both foreign and Brazilian
> investors took personal loans at high interest rates in order to buy
> Brazilian government bonds.
>
> As the Brazilian crisis deepened, Western banks and Wall Street became
> concerned about their investments and assets in Brazilian agriculture,
> industry and services. To end the downward spiral the IMF stepped in
> with the biggest bail-out ever - credit worth US$30 billion in 2002.
> (Ironically, just a short while before that, the IMF had refused
> Argentina a similar rescue package.)
>
> A combination of "heavy Wall Street pressure" plus the IMF rescue
> deal increased the pressure on the Brazilian government for further
> privatizations in mines, telecommunications and the petrol and
> electricity industries. Unemployment rocketted and billions of
> dollars' worth of national assets were sold off to multinational
> corporations.
>
> The 'conditionality' of the loans granted by the IMF was that the
> Brazilian government undertook to maintain economic growth at 3.75 per
> cent per year. This guaranteed creditors that Brazil would be able to
> pay back its debt and interest. As a direct consequence, social
> spending budgets were inevitably slashed and the welfare of the poorest
> sections of the population was sacrificed to debt servicing.
>
> Shockingly, the Brazilian case is not unique but can be found again and
> again in various countries and guises throughout the world, says
> Professor Ziegler. He provides ample illustration throughout his book,
> with a wide variety of concrete and detailed cases, from Mongolia to
> Ethiopia and other heavily indebted nations. Each case, though
> different in its pattern, ends in a similar outcome: increased poverty
> and millions of homeless, deprived people.
>
> New feudal powers
>
> What is behind this phenomenon of whole countries going bankrupt and
> being forced to sacrifice the well-being of their own populations to
> foreign financial institutions?
>
> According to Ziegler, the multinational corporations are the new feudal
> powers. Their purpose is to maximize profits - whatever the human and
> national cost in lost jobs, crippled welfare systems and virtually
> non-existent public spending. They aim to eliminate national controls
> and "social obstacles", thereby gaining control of the wealth of
> individual countries.
>
> To achieve their aims they deliberately cause a scarcity of services,
> of capital and assets, so as to gain control of the global economic
> system. By way of illustration: in 1964 the global debt of the 122
> developing nations was $54 billion; today it is $2,000 billion. At the
> same time, the net profitability of the 500 most powerful
> transcontinental corporations is 15 per cent per year. According to
> Standard & Poors, the financial reserves maintained by the 374 biggest
> corporations amount to some $555 billion. Despite this they continue to
> cause job and wage cuts and limit social spending.
>
> Weapon of mass destruction
>
> In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing
> countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing
> countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion. Debt,
> Ziegler says, is the new weapon of mass destruction that the modern
> feudal powers use to enslave whole countries.
>
> The well-known British NGO Jubilee 2000 has calculated that every five
> seconds a child dies because of debt. Indebted governments of the South
> borrow loans with interest rates five to seven times higher than those
> on the financial markets. Just the annual servicing of this debt
> prevents them from making any investment in public schools, hospitals
> and social security, while police and military budgets are maintained,
> to protect the foreign investments, says Ziegler. Between 1992 and
> 1997, Cameroon allocated 4 per cent of its budget to social services,
> but 36 per cent to debt repayment. In Kenya it was 12 per cent and 40
> per cent and in Zambia 6 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
>
> Although most of these countries keep up with their repayments, their
> external debt keeps on growing. There are several reasons for the
> continuous increase in their debt:
>
> · most countries produce raw materials but import industrial
> equipment, the cost of which has risen enormously in the last 20 years;
> · rampant corruption has led elites, with the connivance of Western
> banks, to indulge in organized corrupt practices;
> · astronomical profits, although made by businesses in developing
> countries, are controlled by shareholders from rich industrialized
> countries and sent back to the West. These profits are usually not
> transferred in the local currency but in US dollars or other major
> international currencies;
> · most multinational companies in Developing World countries hold
> patents and receive royalties which are also transferred to the West.
>
> This, Ziegler explains, is how developing countries lose their ability
> to provide for themselves. Their sources of income are stolen by
> Western creditors. In the 1970s, Latin America's total foreign debt
> was $60 billion. In 1980, it was $240 billion, and in 2001 it reached
> $750 billion. Each individual in Latin America owes, on average, $2,250
> to their Western creditors.
>
> Ziegler shows that the gap seems to be widening. Forty years ago, he
> says, some 400 million people were permanently underfed. Today, their
> number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842 million people.
> Meanwhile, the Return on Equity (ROE) of the 500 most powerful
> transnational companies has remained at a steady 15 per cent level in
> the US since 2001. Global capitalism, Ziegler explains, has reached a
> stage where it now experiences a constant economic growth without
> job-creation and almost no increase in the purchasing power of
> consumers.
>
> What Ziegler points up is that this issue is not simply about profit
> and loss, interest rates and investment. It is about endemic violence,
> hunger and death in countries that are pillaged and broken in this way.
> In 2002, it is estimated that 4,000 children were killed on the streets
> of Brazilian cities. The lack of education, of adequate housing and
> food, the denial of access to healthcare, to paid jobs and security, as
> well as the loss of personal autonomy, forces huge numbers of people
> into purposeless lives.
>
> War to serve global feudal rulers
>
> But Ziegler goes a step further. Politics, he says, is exploited to
> serve the financial interests of giant conglomerates. The war waged by
> the US-led coalition in Iraq had a very important strategic purpose:
> not only does Iraq have the world's second largest oil reserves but,
> thanks to its particular geology, the oil reserves are only a few
> metres from the surface. To produce a barrel of crude oil in Texas
> costs $10; in Iraq the same barrel costs less than $1 to produce.
>
> Quoting The New York Times, Ziegler says that in the first quarter of
> 2004 the net profits of the seven foremost American oil companies grew
> by 43 per cent. Similarly, other big corporations in military
> electronics and weapons have experienced skyrocketting profits due to
> the permanent 'war on terror' waged by the American administration.
>
> Can the indebted countries rebel against the domination of the IMF,
> asks Ziegler? No, he answers, because each time they appeal to the IMF,
> they have to write a 'letter of intent' in which they literally
> give up their sovereignty for the sake of the creditors. There is a
> conscious underlying strategy of the 'cosmocrats' to maintain those
> at the bottom in utter poverty, so as to make colossal profits. The
> continuation of this system of usury relies on the permanent
> enslavement of whole nations.
>
> The French revolution of 1789 was a step on the journey towards
> political democracy, and a partial source of inspiration for the
> Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. In the 20th century, the
> United Nations tried to secure universal peace; substantial progress
> has been made in many areas of human endeavour. But we are now facing
> the most brutal attack on the people's sovereignty by the new feudal
> lords. Quoting Gracchus Baboeuf, one of the leading figures of the
> French Revolution and head of the revolutionary group 'Conspiracy of
> the Equals', Ziegler concludes that we have to "look for the common
> good", and recognize that the right to happiness, dignity, food and
> freedom are basic and essential to mankind. This will require the
> complete transformation of society.
>
> Jean Ziegler, L'Empire de la Honte. Editions Fayard, Paris, France.
>
> -------------------------------------
> Quotes from Jean Ziegler:
>
> "In a world overflowing with riches, it is an outrageous scandal that
> more than 826 million people suffer hunger and malnutrition and that
> every year over 36 million die of starvation and related causes. We
> must take urgent action now."
> Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur
>
> In 2003, the international 'aid' received by 122 developing
> countries totalled $54 billion; debt repayment from those developing
> countries back to the donor countries was a massive $436 billion.
>
> Forty years ago some 400 million people were permanently underfed.
> Today, their number has more than doubled - to a staggering 842
> million people.
>
> -------------
> # 2
> CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
> How the U.S. Uses Globalization to
> Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
>
> (A NY Times Best Seller!)
>
>
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207
>
> Watch/Listen to an hourlong interview with John Perkins, a former
> respected member of the international banking community. In his book
> Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid
> professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe
> out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could
> possibly repay and then taking over their economies. John Perkins
> describes himself as a former economic hit man - a highly paid
> professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of
> dollars.
>
> 20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title,
> "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."
>
> Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two
> countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of
> as kindred spirits - Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar
> Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes.
> Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they
> opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads
> whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring
> Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the
> CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.
>
> John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that
> book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On
> each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current
> world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War,
> Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes
> always convinced me to stop."
>
> But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled
> Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
>
> Watch and/or listen to the interview
>
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207
> read excerpt:
>
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/188
>
> ===================
>
> The truth will set us free!
>
> (from allegience to corrupt politicians who kiss the asses of the
> obscenely rich while pissing on the peasants at home and abroad, and
> all the horrificly miserable wars and poverty that they create).
>
> The lies of the US establishment keep us in chains.
>
> =============
>
> "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in
> government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is
> the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the
> people." Hugo L. Black
>
> ==================
> The following is an excerpt from Baghdad Burning - a young Baghdad
> woman's blog called 'Baghdad Burning'
> ===
>
> Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the
> latest- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor
> girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor
> will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light
> and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along
> with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes
> here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in
> American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and
> Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't
> believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous.
> Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the
> country, why not the people?
>
> In the news they're estimating her age to be around 24, but Iraqis from
> the area say she was only 14. Fourteen. Imagine your 14-year-old sister
> or your 14-year-old daughter. Imagine her being gang-raped by a group
> of psychopaths and then the girl was killed and her body burned to
> cover up the rape. Finally, her parents and her five-year-old sister
> were also killed. Hail the American heroes... Raise your heads high
> supporters of the 'liberation' - your troops have made you proud today.
> I don't believe the troops should be tried in American courts. I
> believe they should be handed over to the people in the area and only
> then will justice be properly served. And our ass of a PM, Nouri
> Al-Maliki, is requesting an 'independent investigation', ensconced
> safely in his American guarded compound because it wasn't his daughter
> or sister who was raped, probably tortured and killed. His family is
> abroad safe from the hands of furious Iraqis and psychotic American
> troops.
>
> It fills me with rage to hear about it and read about it. The pity I
> once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by
> the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news
> of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to
> be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I
> can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't
> bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they
> left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see
> beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents
> they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How
> many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?
>
> Why don't the Americans just go home? They've done enough damage and we
> hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they 'cut and run',
> but the fact is that they aren't doing anything right now. How much
> worse can it get? People are being killed in the streets and in their
> own homes- what's being done about it? Nothing. It's convenient for
> them- Iraqis can kill each other and they can sit by and watch the
> bloodshed- unless they want to join in with murder and rape.
>
> Buses, planes and taxis leaving the country for Syria and Jordan are
> booked solid until the end of the summer. People are picking up and
> leaving en masse and most of them are planning to remain outside of the
> country. Life here has become unbearable because it's no longer a
> 'life' like people live abroad. It's simply a matter of survival,
> making it from one day to the next in one piece and coping with the
> loss of loved ones and friends- friends like T.
>
> It's difficult to believe T. is really gone... I was checking my email
> today and I saw three unopened emails from him in my inbox. For one
> wild, heart-stopping moment I thought he was alive. T. was alive and it
> was all some horrific mistake! I let myself ride the wave of giddy
> disbelief for a few precious seconds before I came crashing down as my
> eyes caught the date on the emails- he had sent them the night before
> he was killed. One email was a collection of jokes, the other was an
> assortment of cat pictures, and the third was a poem in Arabic about
> Iraq under American occupation. He had highlighted a few lines
> describing the beauty of Baghdad in spite of the war... And while I
> always thought Baghdad was one of the more marvelous cities in the
> world, I'm finding it very difficult this moment to see any beauty in a
> city stained with the blood of T. and so many other innocents...
>
> see her blog here:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
>
> One way to help fight the real terrorists!
>
http://www.ImpeachBush.org
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> National Impeachment Movement Ignored by Corporate Media
>
> By Peter Phillips
>
> If a national movement calling for the impeachment of the President is
> rapidly emerging and the corporate media are not covering it, is there
> really a national movement for the impeachment of the President?
>
> Impeachment advocates are widely mobilizing in the U.S. Over 1,000
> letters to the editors of major newspapers have been printed in the
> past six months asking for impeachment. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette letter
> writer George Matus says, "I am still enraged over unasked questions
> about exit polls, touch-screen voting, Iraq, the cost of the new
> Medicare...who formulated our energy policy, Jack Abramoff, the Downing
> Street Memos, and impeachment." David Anderson in McMinnville, Oregon
> pens to the Oregonian, "Where are the members of our congressional
> delegation now in demanding the current president's actions be
> investigated to see if impeachment or censure are appropriate
> actions?" William Dwyer's letter in the Charleston Gazette says,
> "Congress will never have the courage to start the impeachment
> process without a groundswell of outrage from the people."
>
> City councils, boards of supervisors, and local and state level
> Democrat central committees have voted for impeachment. Arcata,
> California voted for impeachment on January 6. The City and County of
> San Francisco, voted Yes on February 28. The Sonoma County Democrat
> Central Committee (CA) voted for Impeachment on March 16. The townships
> of Newfane, Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney in Vermont all
> voted for impeachment the first week of March. The New Mexico State
> Democrat party convention rallied on March 18 for the "impeachment of
> George Bush and his lawful removal from office." The national Green
> Party called for impeachment on January 3. Op-ed writers at the St.
> Petersburg Times, Newsday, Yale Daily News, Barrons, Detroit Free
> Press, and the Boston Globe have called for impeachment. The San
> Francisco Bay Guardian (1/25/06) The Nation (1/30/06) and Harpers
> (3/06) published cover articles calling for impeachment. As of March
> 16, thirty-two US House of Representatives have signed on as
> co-sponsors to House Resolution 635, which would create a Select
> Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President Bush's
> impeachment.
>
> Polls show that nearly a majority of Americans favor impeachment. In
> October of 2005, Public Affairs Research found that 50%% of Americans
> said that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war
> in Iraq. A Zogby International poll from early November 2005 found that
> 53%% of Americans say, "If President Bush did not tell the truth about
> his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider
> holding him accountable through impeachment." A March 16, 2006 poll by
> American Research Group showed that 42%% of Americans favored impeaching
> Bush.
>
> Despite all this advocacy and sentiment for impeachment, corporate
> media have yet to cover this emerging mass movement. The Bangor Daily
> News simply reported on March 17 that former US Attorney General Ramsey
> Clark has set up the website
Votetoimpeach.org and that other groups
> are using the internet to push impeachment. The Wall Street Journal, on
> March 16, editorialized about how it is just "the loony left"
> seeking impeachment, but perhaps some Democrats in Congress will join
> in feeding on the "bile of the censure/impeachment brigades."
>
> The corporate media are ignoring the broadening call for impeachment
> - wishing perhaps it will just go away. Television news and talk
> shows have mentioned impeachment over 100 times in the past 30 days,
> mostly however in the context of Senator Russ Feingold's censure bill
> and the lack of broad Democrat support for censure or impeachment.
> Nothing on television news gives the impression that millions of
> Americans are calling for the impeachment of Bush and his cohorts.
>
> The Bush Administration lied about Iraq, illegally spied on US
> citizens, and continues war crimes in the Middle East. Despite
> corporate media's inability to hear the demands for impeachment, the
> groundswell of outrage continues to expand.
>
> Source: Project Censored - Sonoma State University
> Immortalist wrote:
