By Ann Talbot.
British mercenaries are to be deployed in Somalia, according to the London-based Sunday Telegraph. The Telegraph, which is well informed on military matters, revealed last week that the Foreign Office has been in talks with a firm that employs former members of the Special Boat Service (SBS).
The ex-SBS men will work with local warlords to take control of the coastline along the strategic shipping route that runs around the Horn of Africa. Ostensibly the plan is an anti-piracy measure responding to the kidnapping of a British couple who …

By Robert Stevens.
Further allegations of war crimes committed by British troops in Iraq emerged in the High Court in London last week.
According to information given by legal representatives of the Ministry of Defence, three British soldiers are being investigated over the alleged abuse of an Iraqi detainee. The three served as interrogators at a secret prison near Basra in southern Iraq, during the British occupation of the city.
The information was made public in a High Court appeal case brought by Public Interest Lawyers (PIL). PIL are asking the High Court …

Fox News Report, December 24 2009
Imam Linked to Ft. Hood Rampage Believed to Be Among 30 Al Qaeda Killed in Airstrike
The radical Muslim imam linked to the rampage at Fort Hood reportedly is believed to have been killed in a Yemen airstrike that may have also taken out the region’s top Al Qaeda leader and 30 other militants.
The raid in Yemen’s east targeted an Al Qaeda leadership meeting held to organize terror attacks. U.S. officials believe radical cleric Anwar Awlaki was “probably” one of dozens of militants killed in the …

By Barry Grey.
In what has become a regular feature of American public life—especially on the eve of major elections—the airwaves were taken over Friday by breathless reports of a new terror threat. It is impossible to determine how much is fact and how much is fiction in the ever-expanding claims being made regarding two packages from Yemen allegedly containing high explosives and addressed to two synagogues in Chicago.
But the very fact that the decision was made, undoubtedly at a very high level, to give such massive media coverage to the …

By Patrick Martin.
Air cargo shipments across the Atlantic and along the US East Coast were brought to a standstill Friday in a terrorism scare that included searches of cargo planes and hangars in New York, Newark and Philadelphia.
Fighter jets escorted a passenger jet from the United Arab Emirates to New York’s JFK airport, allegedly because of a single package from Yemen in the aircraft’s cargo. Canadian Air Force jets first intercepted Emirates Airways Flight 201 as it entered North American airspace, and F-16s picked up the plane at the US …

By Paul Craig Roberts.
Does anyone remember the “cakewalk war” that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?
Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?
Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.
Does anyone remember that …

By the Editor.
My curiosity was piqued when a friend told me of the upcoming Wall Street documentary exposé ‘Inside Job’. It’s got some pretty good reviews, and perhaps it will pack enough punch to educate the general public about the theft of taxpayer money that constituted the euphemistically termed ‘bailout’. Online reviews have praised the film, “A wake-up call of macroeconomic proportions”, “Economics explained beautifully” – certainly sounds worth a watch.
Admittedly though, you have to be quite naive to think that a genuine expose of Wall Street could …

By the Editor.
I learned of Oliver Stone’s new documentary film ‘South of the Border’ many months ago, and have been eagerly anticipating it ever since. It’s a welcome change from the suffocating bias that clouds the mainstream media (especially in the US) with regards to South America and Hugo Chavez in particular. In a nutshell, Stone’s new piece gives the viewer an insight into the Socialist revolution in South America and the leaders pioneering it. You’ll also get a brief history of how US imperialism and financial …

By Allen L. Roland.
The occupation of Iraq is still going on, and the other war to which it is inextricably bound, in Afghanistan, is still going terribly wrong. As Carl Younge writes in The Guardian ~ ” Attacking Iraq was the most defining personal political choice of the decade and, ethically speaking, not a remotely tough call. The fact that it was illegal adds judicial finality to a moment of moral clarity; but even within the law, it would have been wrong. The ramifications …

By John Pilger.

Washington: The TV anchorwoman was conducting a split-screen interview with a journalist who had volunteered to be a witness at the execution of a man on death row in Utah for 25 years. “He had a choice,” said the journalist, “lethal injection or firing squad.” “Wow!” said the anchorwoman. Cue a blizzard of commercials for fast food, tooth whitener, stomach stapling, the new Cadillac. This was followed by a reporter in Afghanistan sweating in a flak jacket. “Hey, it’s hot,” he …