Obama made mysterious call to former President Bush prior to troop withdrawal speech

Reposted from RAW STORY

President Barack Obama officially announced his plan to withdraw troops from Iraq during a speech to military troops and officers at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina Friday afternoon.
While he has apparently garnered wide Republican support for the plan, not all Democrats appear to be on board.
Obama says he’ll withdraw America’s combat brigades from Iraq over the next 18 months but that his administration would “proceed cautiously” on the withdrawal and that U.S. commanders will bring it about in close consultation with the Iraqi government.
“During his campaign for the presidency, Obama had advocated pulling troops out within 16 months of taking office,” the AP notes. “The timeline he announced Friday, involving roughly 100,000 troops, was two months longer. It still hastens the U.S. exit, nevertheless.”

Freed Detainee in U.K. Tells of Abuse by U.S.

Washington Post, 
A former British resident released after seven years in detention, more than four of them at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arrived back in London on Monday and issued a statement alleging that the United States government had subjected him to years of “medieval” torture. 
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Senate to investigate CIA’s actions under Bush

Reposted from Los Angeles Times
The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA’s detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush, setting the stage for a sweeping examination of some of most secretive and controversial operations in recent agency history.

Click here to read the full article.

Does Anyone In Obama’s Administration Pay Taxes?

NEWS broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.) – and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. But this is only the tip of Emanuel’s previously undisclosed ethics problems.

Obama Administration Threatened Britain To Suppress Torture Evidence

The Obama administration has been caught in a fresh torture controversy after it emerged that America threatened to cease all intelligence ties with Britain if it revealed that a British suspect held at Guantanamo Bay had been tortured into confessing to being part of a dirty bomb plot.

“Two senior British judges have expressed their anger and surprise that President Barack Obama’s Government has put pressure on Britain to suppress evidence of torture in US custody,”reports the London Times.

NATO Public Affairs Officers are to keep Jordan’s involvement secret*LEAKED*

The Pentagon pulled its entire Afghanistan “oneteam” site off the Internet on Friday following the release of several NATO documents by Wikileaks. As of Sunday, the site is still off-line.
Wikileaks cracked the encryption to documents from the site relating to the war in Afghanistan. One document, titled “NATO in Afghanistan: Master Narrative”, details the story NATO representatives are to give—and to avoid giving to— journalists.
The encryption password was discovered to be progress, which perhaps reflects the Pentagon’s desire to stay on-message—even to itself.
The document, dated October 6, and believed to be current, was found on the Central Command Combined Security Transition Command website oneteam.centcom.mil. Parts of the site can still be seen in google’s cache, and the decrypted documents have been made available by Wikileaks.
Among the revelations, is Jordan’s presence as secret member of the US lead occupation force, the ISAF.
The document states NATO Public Affairs Officers are to keep Jordan’s involvement secret. Publicly, Jordan withdrew in 2001 and the country does not appear on this month’s public list of ISAF member states.
Jordan is a middle eastern monarchy, backed by the US, and historically the CIA’s closest partner in its extraordinary rendition program. According to a January 2007 report into the country by UN Special Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, the “practice of torture is routine”…

NKorea Warns Again of Conflict on Korean Peninsula

Reposted from AP

North Korea accused the U.S. military of making provocative moves along the tense border on the divided Korean peninsula, warning Saturday of ”unpredictable military conflicts.”

The rare threat came as North Korea was apparently gearing up to test-fire a long-range missile believed capable of reaching U.S. territory. Pyongyang has also stepped up its war of rhetoric against the South over Seoul’s tough stance toward its communist neighbor.

North Korea’s military said U.S. troops advanced as close as 100 feet (30 meters) from the Military Demarcation Line in the western border and took pictures of a North Korean military post last month. It also said more than 60 U.S. patrols approached to within 330 feet (100 meters) of the boundary this year.

The U.S. provocations ”at a time when the North-South relations are inching close to the brink of a war may touch off unpredictable military conflicts,” the North’s military said in a message sent to the South, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

”If the U.S. forces keep behaving arrogantly … the (North’s military) will take a resolute counteraction.” It did not elaborate.

Facts on Media in America: Did You Know?

Currently, six major companies control most of the media in our country. The FCC could decide to relax media ownership rules, which would allow further consolidation and put decisions about what kinds of programming and news Americans receive in even fewer hands.
Reposted from www.commoncause.org