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For most people in Britain and the US, Iraq is already history. Afghanistan has long since taken the lion's share of media attention, as the death toll of Nato troops rises inexorably. Controversy about Iraq is now almost entirely focused on the original decision to invade: what's happening there in 2010 barely registers.

That will have been reinforced by Barack Obama's declaration this week that US combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq at the end of the month "as promised and on schedule". For much of the British and American press, this was the real thing: headlines hailed the "end" of the war and reported "US troops to leave Iraq".

Nothing could be further from the truth.

CHECK OUT THE COMPLETE ARTICLE AT:

http://www.warcriminalswatch.org/index.php/news/40-recent-news/635-8-4-1...

By Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman

From San Francisco Gate

A white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before dawn on a CIA mission so secretive, many in the nation's war on terrorism were kept in the dark.

Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were aboard.

They arrived at Guantanamo on Sept. 24, 2003, years earlier than the U.S. has ever disclosed. Then, months later, they were just as quietly whisked away before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers.

The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA "black sites" for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those rights.

READ MORE AT:
http://www.warcriminalswatch.org/index.php/news/40-recent-news

For a great read on how it's not just possible but necessary to hold higher-ups responsible for their heinous acts, be sure to get yourself a copy of Charlotte Dennett's "The People v Bush: One Lawyer's Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the Nationwide Grassroots Movement she's encountered along the way."

But Still Admissible

Canadian defendant Omar Khadr attends his hearing in the courthouse for the U.S. military war crimes commission at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, August 9, 2010. JANET HAMLIN/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Soldiers Missing in Action from Vietnam War Identified

August 11, 2010 - The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Paul G. Magers of Sidney, Neb., will be buried on Aug. 27 in Laurel, Mont., and Army Chief Warrant Officer Donald L. Wann of Shawnee, Okla., will be buried on Aug. 21 in Fort Gibson, Okla.

EDITORIAL: A lesson about legislating: Bizarre U.S. Navy Vets story should give Virginians pause.

Aug. 10 2010 -- The latest turn in the increasingly bizarre U.S. Navy Veterans Association saga should make no one feel good about Virginia's legislative process.

When a Florida newspaper began investigating the group last year, it could find only one of 85 officers listed on the charity's website -- Bobby Thompson. Ohio authorities now say that Bobby Thompson isn't actually Bobby Thompson, but the perpetrator of an identity theft.

Chilcot inquiry wants evidence from Iraq war veterans

Sir John Chilcot wants soldiers – past and present – to have 'their voices heard' on how campaign was run.

11 August 2010 - The Iraq inquiry's chairman today invited British veterans of the conflict to submit their views on how the war was run.

Sir John Chilcot announced there will be a meeting held at Tidworth Garrison in Wiltshire on 14 September for UK military personnel past and present who served in Iraq between 2003 and 2009.

He wrote in an open letter to the veterans: "The purpose of this event is to gain insights from those who are in a unique position to talk about how the campaign was conducted and the impact it had upon their lives. Continued

First Guantanamo Trial Under Obama Opens

Courtroom sketch of Canadian defendant Omar Khadr (l) at his pre-trial hearing in the courthouse for the U.S. military war crimes commission at the Camp Justice compound on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, 9 Aug 2010.

10 August 2010 - Jury selection began for the first war crimes trial under U.S. President Barack Obama - when 23-year-old Canadian detainee Omar Khadr appeared Tuesday before a tribunal at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

America's Gulf: A Toxic Crime Scene - by Stephen Lendman

On August 4, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a Department of Commerce agency, reported that:

"The vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed, much of which is in the process of being degraded....this is the direct result of the robust federal response efforts."

The same day at an AFL/CIO convention, Obama hailed the news, saying "the long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally close to coming to an end."

False. From the start, the Obama administration conspired with BP, imposing censorship and cover-up, barring the public and news media from coming within 65 feet of clean-up of "booming operations, boom, or oil spill response operations under penalty of law" without Coast Guard-authorized permission.

Using examples such as the protests against the proposed Islamic education center containing a mosque near Ground Zero, Sally Steenland puts recent anti-Muslim ranting into perspective and encourages Americans to look at the religion based on reality, not distortion.

More: The Distorted Lens of Islamophobia: We Need to Assess Islam Based on Reality, Not Rants

Ground Zero Mosque Not at Ground Zero and Not a Mosque : Veterans Today

Exchange among civilizations is a tremendous source for the creation of value and most of all, the value of diversity and tolerance

The above seems Not to be the ideals nor following the {re}written teachings of the so called self labeled 'christians' in the U.S. in this New Century carrying over from the previous but with louder whining and obscene hatreds, then they wonder why others shun them!!

By Linn Washington

San Francisco – Two friends debated the merits of California’s pending referendum on pot legalization as they smoked marijuana through a hi-tech electric pipe while sitting inside a swank house where floor-to-ceiling windows artistically framed the glittering night skyline of this city known for its iconic Golden Gate Bridge and its libertarian attitude towards lifestyles.

Both friends vigorously oppose America’s pot prohibition condemning it as ineffective and fiscally wasteful. Prohibition nationwide costs billions of dollars per year for just enforcement which in 2008 produced 872,721 arrests, with most of those arrests (89 percent) being for mere possession.

However, these friends hold sharply different opinions on California’s Prop 19 with one firmly supporting this ballot measure to legalize possession of an ounce of pot for personal use among adults while the other strongly opposes it.

What's the Afghanistan War About?

August 8, 2010 - When facts are inconvenient, when international law, human rights and history get in the way, when war crimes can't easily be justified or explained away, when logic doesn't help much, the current crop of American political leaders turns to what is now the old reliable: 9/11.

We have to fight in Afghanistan because ... somehow ... it's tied into what happened on September 11, 2001. Here's Vice-President Joe Biden: "We know that it was from the space that joins Afghanistan and Pakistan that the attacks of 9/11 occurred." 1

Here's Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC): "This is the place [Afghanistan] we were attacked from 9/11." 2

The Charade Begins: Netanyahu's Flotilla Massacre Probe Testimony - by Stephen Lendman

On August 9, Israel's self-appointed Turkel Commission, its planned whitewash, began hearings into the Freedom Flotilla massacre, a humanitarian mission delivering essential aid to besieged Gazans, Israeli officials blaming the victims, not themselves.

After the incident, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said organizers incited the attack. His deputy, Danny Ayalon, connected them to international terrorists, trying to smuggle in arms, bogusly claiming weapons were found on board the mother ship, the Mavi Marmara.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev accused the activists of "initiat(ing) the violence," insisting IDF commandos "were attacked with knives, clubs, and even live fire." Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi said soldiers were forced by violence to open fire.

One of the Lazy White Folk of Arizona:

A couple miles south is Suzie Perry's backyard — which she laments is in disarray. The yard is messy because Perry no longer hires the undocumented workers that she had paid for 15 years to maintain it. "We didn't really even think about its legality before. And now, that's sort of in the air. Like, should we be doing this or shouldn't we?" Perry says.

In Illegal Immigration Debate, To Hire Or Not?

WATCH JFWILLIAM'S HIGHEST BIDDER VIDEO
Democrats and Republicans are two wings of the same party. meanwhile... GOING UP ! Top 1% share of total income Income gap between rich and poor Foreign debt as a percent of GDP Age at which one can receive Social Security...

Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmhL8bjL9vc

We'll see, as us older Vets know full well, but it isn't only within the Military Branches nor the Veterans Community, It's The Country That Needs The Wakeup Call!!

Army Strives to Reduce Suicide, Mental-health Issues

Aug. 8, 2010 – The Army is striving to reduce soldier suicides and mental-health problems by giving troops more dwell time between deployments, identifying tell-tale symptoms more quickly and eliminating the stigma of seeking help, the Army vice chief of staff said today.

Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli recapped findings of a task force he commissioned to reduce soldier suicides and mental-health problems during an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s “This Week.”

By John Grant

“Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.”
--Sophocles

What is it about Americans that they have so much going for them, yet they can be so very stupid?

Two stories in the Sunday New York Times jumped out as a sad backdrop to our misguided War On Terror.

The first is about the bigoted anti-Muslim xenophobia in New York over a proposed mosque some blocks from the site of the former World Trade Towers. The emotional volatility is being fueled by the usual Fox News agitators, and Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich stirred up the pot for their demagogic needs.

Even the Jewish Anti-Defamation League took off after the mosque and condemned it. Here’s the Anti Defamation League’s mission statement at the top of their web page:

Exclusive: Caught in America's legal black hole

AP A row of sleeping tents in Camp Justice

9 August 2010 Have a nice flight with Country Airlines," said the smiling stewardess, "and enjoy your trip." Standing on the gangway of the Sun Country 737, she could have been welcoming us aboard a jet bound for any one of America's favourite holiday destinations.

But the US military-chartered aircraft taking off from the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington this weekend was heading for somewhere not altogether known for its leisure facilities.

“Free Bradley Manning Rally” at Quantico, VA from William Hughes on Vimeo.

Detective who found weapons expert David Kelly's body raises questions over his death

Key evidence: DC Graham Coe has spoken for the first time about finding the body of Dr David Kelly

9th August 2010 - The mystery surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly deepened yesterday after the detective who found his body claimed he didn't see 'much blood'.

The revelation by Detective Constable Graham Coe casts further doubt on the Hutton Report's verdict that the Ministry of Defence scientist died of blood loss after slitting his wrist.

In his first interview, Mr Coe, now retired, also said that police searched Dr Kelly's home the day after his death for papers 'of a sensitive nature' about Iraq.

ACLU Calls For Broad Investigation Into Bush Torture Program

Aug 7, 2010 - Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU:

"This revelation illustrates the lengths to which the Bush administration went in order to shield its conduct from the courts and keep prisoners outside the protection of the law. Secret detention constitutes a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, and the officials who authorized the CIA's secret prisons and torture program should be held accountable. Continued

Khadr trial will be a window into America's war on terror

08.07.10 - GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- Across his eight years in U.S. custody, Americans have seen Canadian Omar Khadr grow from a child found near dead in a war zone in Afghanistan to a brooding, weeping teenager and more recently a defiant young man spurning a guilty plea deal at Guantanamo.

They've seen him cast as, alternately, a child of jihad who hurled a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in battle in Afghanistan in 2002 or a 15-year-old captured far from his native Toronto and then tortured into confessing to a crime he now denies.

Prosecutors say Khadr, now 23, was an ``unprivileged enemy belligerent'' when he joined elders on a night mission in Afghanistan, planting mines. They call it a war crime.

Political Prisoners in America - by Stephen Lendman

Noted journalist HL Menchen described "The most dangerous man to any government (as someone) who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable," yet resisting, he faces recrimination - political imprisonment for his beliefs and activism, officials tolerating no opposition to their authority, no matter how extreme or lawless.

President Obama's position on war crimes committed during the Bush administration has been defined in American political discourse by rhetoric about "looking forward". But that only applies to American war crimes.

On the other hand, at Guantanamo Bay, a young man who was extra-judicially kidnapped by U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the age of fifteen and illegally transported to almost a decade of legal limbo in Cuba, is now set to stand trial in the first war crimes prosecution under the Obama administration.

Omar Khadr is accused of throwing a grenade that killed one American, apparently based on a confession extracted by sleep deprivation and threats of rape. George W. Bush launched an illegal war of aggression that probably killed more than a million people. The whole world knows it. Even Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, recently referred on the floor of the House of Commons to the "illegal invasion" of Iraq.

Elaine Brower,mother of an Iraq vet and Ethan McCord,Iraq vet, on supporting accused military leaker Bradley Manning and the growing resistance in the military.

See and hear what they have to share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZotRFGVpbY

Ethan McCord, who was a member of Bravo Company and rescued the two children seen in the WikiLeaks"Collateral Murder" video, tells what effect this experience had on him.

Hear his account on the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihPGtcHjNk

Sunday, August 1st, was the 8th anniversary of the writing of the torture memos by John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Cheers to Coleen Rowley, the former FBI official, for protesting in Minneapolis, calling for prosecutions of those who have authorized and implemented torture. Read her call to action and see more photos here.

Along with this anniversary comes the expiration of the 8 year statute of limitations for prosecuting the torturers. Rowley called for immediate action in response, and wrote: "Obama's insane slogan and policy about 'looking only forward' makes no sense as it would entail overlooking all crimes committed in the past."