A US Marine was ordered to execute a room full of Iraqi women and children during an alleged massacre in Haditha that left 24 people dead, a military court heard Thursday.

The testimony came in the opening of a preliminary hearing for Marine Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faces 17 counts of murder over the Haditha killings, the most serious war crimes allegations faced by US troops in Iraq. FULL ARTICLE=>

Concealed Carry Pistols

Chuck Hawks

Handguns are a personal choice, and what feels good to one person may not appeal to another. The heavier and bulkier a gun is, the more trouble it is to carry all the time, and the harder it is to conceal. Unfortunately, it is also true that the lighter a gun is, the harder it recoils (with any particular load). These facts are frequently overlooked in the many magazine articles I have read on this subject, which tend to emphasize stopping power. I have a concealed carry permit, and I have reasonably extensive personal experience with several categories of guns for concealed carry. FULL ARTICLE=>

Personal Survival Tactics

Paul W Abel
Shoot-N-Iron Practical Shooting & Training Academy

I read articles in the national magazines that promote all sort of gimmicks and accessories that they say will save your life every time you find yourself confronted by bad guys.

I will concede that some of the items advertised do work and do the job well. For instance, night sights work wonderfully. If you have ever shot in very low light conditions, you know that sight acquisition is tough if not impossible. Tritium sights are great and can put you on target in almost total darkness. I have seen shooters equipped in this manner actually score better at night then they did in daylight. Night sights make you focus your eyes on the sights, and during the daylight many shooters have a tendency to have their eyes focused on the target. While I do advocate night sights, I am not sold on the laser sight for handguns. While they are very accurate, they can be traced back to the source. I personally do not want to send out any signal or light beam that may draw fire from an adversary. Laser sights do work, but using them is a matter of personal taste.

There is nothing on the market that will work every time. Nothing out there replaces good tactical training. It is a proven fact that when you find yourself in a lethal confrontation, you will do what you have practiced. If you have not practiced proper procedures and tactics you stand a large chance of losing any confrontation. FULL ARTICLE=>

The War Criminal in the Living Room

Paul Craig Roberts

The media is silent, Congress is absent, and Americans are distracted as George W. Bush openly prepares aggression against Iran. FULL ARTICLE=>

FBI Suppressed Video of TWA Flight 800 Explosion

Jack Cashill

More than six years after retired United Airline captain Ray Lahr launched his Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, petition into the fate of TWA Flight 800, the FBI has shown him –likely by accident – one seriously smoking gun. FULL ARTICLE=>

Bush Puts Iran in Crosshairs

Ray McGovern

Not another warning about war with Iran! Well, suck it up. President George W. Bush's speech Tuesday makes clear his plan to attack Iran, and how the intelligence, as was the case before the attack on Iraq, is being "fixed around the policy."

It's not about putative Iranian "weapons of mass destruction" – not even ostensibly. It is about the requirement for a scapegoat for U.S. reverses in Iraq, and the felt need to create a casus belli by provoking Iran in such a way as to "justify" armed retaliation – perhaps extending to an attempt to destroy its nuclear-related facilities.

Bush's Aug. 28 speech to the American Legion came five years after a very similar presentation by Vice President Dick Cheney. Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Aug. 26, 2002, Cheney set the meretricious terms of reference for war on Iraq. FULL ARTICLE=>

Empire or Freedom?

Joseph G. Hornberger

Posted August 27, 2007

The 9/11 attacks brought to the surface a dilemma that everyone, especially libertarians, must now confront: whether to choose a pro-empire, pro-intervention foreign policy or a free society.

No one can deny that we now live in a country in which the president, on his own initiative, has the omnipotent power to send the nation into war against any country on earth, especially given that the war on terror extends all over the globe. The president and the military have the power to take any suspected terrorist — foreigner or American — into custody and torture, abuse, and execute him without due process of law and trial by jury. The president and the NSA have the power to wiretap telephones and monitor emails without a judicially issued warrant. The president, the CIA, and the military have the power to send missiles into cars and drop bombs into buildings anywhere in the world, including right here in the United States, in their attempt to win the war on terror. Indeed, the president may now ignore any constitutional or legislative restraints on his power as a “wartime” commander in chief. FULL ARTICLE=>

Abu Ghraib: All US Officers now Acquitted of Criminal Charges

The acquittal of a US army colonel on charges relating to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib means no officers have been found criminally guilty. The episode stained the reputation of the US military and may well have acted as a recruiting agent for insurgents. The officer, Lt-Col Steven Jordan, was found not guilty by a military jury of failing to train and supervise the soldiers under his authority at Abu Ghraib. Instead he was convicted of breaking an order not to discuss the case. He was reprimanded. FULL ARTICLE=>

LC Editor’s Comment: Jordan was convicted of breaking the military “code of silence” not for a crime. Apparently the code of silence prevails in the commissioned military ranks as it does in the Mafia.

Danger of Withdrawal from Iraq: Republican Congressman Pulls G-Word Scare Job

Gasoline prices could rise to about $9 per gallon if the United States withdraws troops from Iraq prematurely, Rep. Jon Porter said he was told on a trip to Iraq that ended this week.

The Nevada Republican, who returned Tuesday from his fourth trip to Iraq, met with U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Iraqi Deputy President Tariq al-Hashimi and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh.

"To a person, they said there would be genocide, gas prices in the U.S. would rise to eight or nine dollars a gallon, al-Qaida would continue its expansion, and Iran would take over that portion of the world if we leave," Porter said Wednesday in a phone interview from Las Vegas. FULL ARTICLE=>

LC Editor’s Comment: See FEAR used as a politician’s propaganda technique.

Cholera Spreads in Iraq as Health Services Collapse

Lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation has led to 5,000 people in northern Iraq contracting cholera. The outbreak is among the most serious signs yet that Iraqi health and social services are breaking down as the number of those living in camps and poor housing increases after people flee their homes. FULL ARTICLE=>

LC Editor’s Comment: What created this problem? Read the next article.

Origin of the Drinking Water and Sanitation Problems in Iraq (Flashback)

By Ghali Hassan

08/03/04 "ICH" -- A humanitarian crisis has been looming in Iraq since the 1991 U.S. war due to shortage of drinking water and increase in waterborne diseases that kill children. Despite abundant supplies of water from the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Shatt-Al-Arab waterway formed by the confluence of the two rivers, because of the destruction to Iraq’s infrastructure and the genocidal sanctions imposed on Iraq by the U.S-UN.

During the 1991 U.S. war on Iraq the country's eight multi-purpose dams had been repeatedly hit, simultaneously wrecking flood control, municipal and industrial water storage, irrigation and hydroelectric power. Four of seven major pumping stations were destroyed, as were 31 municipal water and sewerage facilities - 20 in Baghdad, resulting in sewage pouring into the Tigris. Water purification plants were incapacitated throughout Iraq.

According to a new report by the London-based health organisation MEDACT, the British affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), “lack of access to safe drinking water, and human waste backed up and out of drains led to infectious diseases like cholera, typhoid”. While Iraq had built one of the most advanced health systems in the developing world before the U.S. war in 1991, that war and the monstrous sanctions had a disastrous impact on Iraq’s performance. One in eight children fewer than five, died before their fifth birthday; one in four was chronically malnourished; a quarter of all newborns were underweight; while maternal mortality stood at 294 for every 100,000 births, roughly the same level as Peru and Bangladesh. The report expressed particular concern for the health of young children, babies and the weak (1). FULL ARTICLE=>

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Conyers: Impeachment off Pelosi's Table, but not Mine

Rep. John Conyers declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could not stop him from beginning impeachment proceedings in the House Judiciary Committee against a 'long list of people'in the Bush administration, although he did not make a firm commitment to begin proceedings.

"Nancy Pelosi has impeachment 'off the table,' but that's off her table, it is not off John Conyers' table," the Michigan Democrat said during a town hall meeting in his district Tuesday. "Nancy Pelosi, who I actually supported, cannot prevent me from introducing an impeachment resolution against, well I've got a long list of people who are eligible."

LC Editor’s Comment: If you are a constituent of Rep. Conyers, I urge you to get on his case using Faxes, emails, phone calls and emails. Let’s see if Mr. Conyers really has a dog in this hunt.

Bush to Request $50 Billion More for Iraq War: Report

U.S. President George W. Bush is preparing to ask Congress for as much as $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a White House official. The request signals increasing White House confidence that it can fend off mounting congressional pressure to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, the Post reported. The additional funds would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Post said.

FULL ARTICLE=>

Bush Threatens to Confront Iran over Alleged Support for Iraqi Insurgents

George Bush yesterday ramped up the war of words between the US and Iran, accusing Tehran of threatening to place the Middle East under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust and revealing that he had authorised US military commanders in Iraq to "confront Tehran's murderous activities". FULL ARTICLE=>

How to Detect and Identify Propaganda in Media News

There are many techniques commonly used in the dissemination of propaganda. Here are some of them. Learn how to identify them as you read and listen to the news offered up my media sources. Only with a working knowledge of propaganda and a finely developed ability to apply that knowledge to every piece of news you view and hear will you be capable of avoid having your own mind manipulated hucksters and politicians. Read this article now and then immediately start applying what you have learned.

It will time, willingness to practice daily, and persistence in order to develop enough skill to be able to consistently identify fend off attacks on the mind by the propagandists be they policians, marketing pros or manipulative spouses or significant others. FULL ARTICLE=>

Alex Jones: End Game – Blueprint for Global Enslavement

Live at the Alamo Drafthouse, South Lamar, Austin, on September 4, 5, 6, and 17.

END GAME is the most ambitious project ever taken on by Austin's own rightful rabble-rouser Alex Jones. The film documents the plan of the global elite to setup a world government and exterminate more than 80% of the world's population. The documentary charts the history of eugenics from Britain through Nazi Germany to modern era equivalents such as transhumanism.

The film, which Alex Jones describes as his best to date, exposes the nightmare future that awaits us all unless we wake up to the truth now. VIDEO INTERVIEW + TICKET INFORMATION=>

Burning the Law in a Riot of Reason

By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout.com

The departure of Alberto Gonzales from the Attorney General's Office brings America to a place of definitions, and hanging in the balance is the very idea of the nation itself. The basic concepts and fundamental principles of our republic now stand as the only legitimate considerations going forward, for they have been tested almost to annihilation already, and will not endure much longer if we continue on this path.

It is the mythology within the Declaration of Independence we speak of, the fiction that tells us we are endowed with rights, and that those rights are unalienable. This falsehood has been vividly exposed in the last several years, and it has been a harsh lesson indeed. All the rights we hold dear and believe to be our greatest strength are, in fact, only words on old paper with neither force nor power. The next line - "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - is the muscle behind the myth, the core that has endured a withering assault.

Matters are so much worse than our national political dialogue lets on. The resignation of Gonzales has unleashed a torrent of hard words and harsh criticisms aimed at the deplorable nature of his tenure, but the truth of it continues to elude mention. They call Gonzales an incompetent, a crony, a loyalist, a disgrace, leaving off the one word necessary to fully explain who he is, and what he was engaged in before he stepped down.

Alberto Gonzales is a traitor. That is the only word to explain it. FULL ARTICLE=>

LC Editor’s Comment: Read the next article to learn how the elected thieves and mass murderers that now run our wounded and dying republic from their comfortable, spacious offices in the White House and Capitol Hill plan

to destroy their next victim nation in the Middle East, Iran, and bring its people to their knees.

Too bad that the nation oppressed peoples of the world used to think symbolized freedom and justice for all under the rule of law has become the world’s number one armed-to-the teeth outlaw state, a nation to feared rather than admired.

Study: US Preparing 'Massive' Military Attack Against Iran

The United States has the capacity for and may be prepared to launch without warning a massive assault on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, as well as government buildings and infrastructure, using long-range bombers and missiles, according to a new analysis.

The paper, "Considering a war with Iran: A discussion paper on WMD in the Middle East" – written by well-respected British scholar and arms expert Dr. Dan Plesch, Director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and Martin Butcher, a former Director of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) and former adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament – was exclusively provided to RAW STORY late Friday under embargo.

Iran Resolves Plutonium Issues under Atom Pact: IAEA

Iran has resolved U.N. questions about tests with plutonium, a key fuel for atomic bombs, and the International Atomic Energy Agency considers the matter closed, according to the text of an IAEA-Iran accord released on Monday. FULL ARTICLE=>

LC Editor’s Comment: Iran is enriching (increasing the ratio of U-235, or fissionable, uranium to total uranium) uranium hexafluoride gas to produce fuel for only its nuclear power generation reactors currently under construction in Iran with the aid of Russian engineers. The method used to produce the moderate enrichment of uranium needed as fuel could be applied to the reactor grade uranium to enrich it enough to produce (fission) weapons grade uranium. However, IAEA inspectors, who have conducted widespread an often unannounced inspections of Iran’s nuclear power research and development facilities for nearly a decade have given Iran a clean bill of health with regard to the absence of any weapons grade uranium and equipment necessary to produced the highly enriched uranium needed to produce weapons.

Iran is a signator to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as is the U.S. The U.S., which is admittedly the largest producer and stockpiler of nucear weapons in the world, however, refuses to provide access to its facilities of IAEA inspectors. Israel, which has manufactured nuclear weapons since the mid-1980’s but has gone to great lengths to keeps this fact secret. Best intelligence estimates reveal that Israel currently has approximately 200 nuclear weapons in its arsenal.

Howver, Israel has refused to sign onto the NNP Treaty or have IAEA inspectors inspect any of its research facilities for the existence of nuclear weapons or enrichment capabilities.

Autocracy Comes to America

We appear to live in a republic. But look closely; it’s clearer every day that we live in a de facto autocracy. President Bush has managed to amass an astounding amount of power simply by scaring the American people and Congress into thinking that our continued existence as a society depends on giving him carte blanche. FULL ARTICLE=>

Twelve Tips for Toppling Tyrants

By Claire Wolfe

Everywhere outside of Hardyville, the thunder of tyranny's jackboots storms ever closer. Already Americans are practically forbidden to travel without government permits. The U.S. military is developing weapons to inflict unendurable pain on civilians from nearly a mile away. Spycams festoon city streets. Black-robed villains decree that any of us can be subjected to a drug search at will without the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing.

And that's not even the tip of the iceberg. That's just the latest dusting of snow on the icy monster's peak. "It's time to shoot the bastards!" some friends of liberty shout. And then they stand around waiting for somebody else to make the first move.

Rightly so. Shoot now and you just become one more quickly forgotten (and probably dead) "lone nut with guns" in one more shallow, sensationalistic news story. You won't even merit as much serious consideration as Robert Blake or Michael Jackson. FULL ARTICLE=>

Handguns for Teaching a Beginner

By Chuck Hawks

Most reasonably experienced handgunners have been faced with a request for informal shooting lessons. These usually come from a friend, spouse, relative, or youth interested in learning how to shoot, or at least in shooting a "real gun" to see what it's like. Such requests should be taken seriously, as there is no better way to grow our sport. Over the years, I have found that most of these requests come from young people and women, with women constituting the majority. FULL ARTICLE=>

Creating a Brighter Future: Getting off the Power Grid

By Justine Sanchez

For the past eight years, I have been teaching solar electricity workshops for Solar Energy International (SEI). It’s always been important to me to practice what I teach, so I can help students from firsthand experience. The funny thing is that my life keeps changing, and every time it does, I am again faced with a new home upgrade to meet my sustainability goals.

FULL ARTICLE=>

What to do with the Rest of Your Life

By Ron Larsen

Business coach, entrepreneur and life coach Martin Sage teaches multi-day seminars on increasing human, professional, and business performance and living more productive, enjoyable and fun-filled lives. In 1994 I took two courses with Sage, What to do with the Rest of your Life and Consultant’s Training for Performers, the first lasting two days and the second four weeks. Both courses contain lecture and experiential (that is “on-the-job” training), arranged in time in approximately a 20% to 80% ratio, respectively.

Combined both courses had a profound positive effect on my life, both personal and professional, and what is amazing is that Martin’s training has stayed with me and I still use virtually automatically and on a daily basis what I learned fourteen years ago, here it is the year 2007.

Because I have found Martin’s training to be have so effective in enhancing the value and quality of all aspects of my life, even today, I’d like to share some of this teachings with you through a set of FREE downloadable MP3 files. They were apparently prepared by on of Martin’s student’s, who now has his own training company, w