They lost the weapons...send them more!

"...The United States must deliver weapons to Iraq more quickly, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday after an announcement that the Iraqis have ordered $100 million (€70 million) in military equipment from China.

The U.S. military has expressed concerns that it is harder to track weapons purchased from countries other than America. In many cases, the Iraqis cannot account for arms flowing into the country, which often end up in the hands of insurgents.

Speaking to reporters, Gates said the issue of slow foreign military sales also arose at his meeting with Chilean Defense Minister Jose Mario Goni just before a news conference.

"This is an issue that we have to look into and see what we can do in the United States to be more responsive and be able to react more quickly to the requests of our friends," Gates said. "Unfortunately the (foreign military sales) program was set up in a way that was not intended to provide sort of emergency or short term supplies, as in the case of Iraq and we're trying to figure out how to do that better."

[ ... ]

The Pentagon sent a team of investigators to Iraq in August because of the growing number of cases of fraud and other irregularities in contracts involving weapons and supplies for Iraqi forces.

And the Government Accountability Office said earlier this year that the Pentagon cannot fully account for US$19.2 billion (€13.6 billion) worth of equipment provided to Iraqi security forces.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said it had reviewed records of the U.S. unit running the program to train and equip Iraqi forces and couldn't account for what happened to least 190,000 weapons. U.S. officials acknowledged that some might have fallen into the hands of insurgents, but also blamed some of the problems on bad record keeping..."

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Demand for nuclear power surging

Nuclear Power's New Dawn

Once synonymous with cash pits, bureaucratic incompetence and environmental disasters, nuclear energy is now experiencing a resurgence in popularity around the world, sending demand for uranium sky-high.

That's big news for uranium-rich countries like Canada, which produces 28 percent of the world's uranium supply. But the heightened demand for uranium has also stirred up controversies in Canada, where some are still jittery about the environmental and political implications.

In total 13 countries are in the process of building new nuclear reactors. According to the World Nuclear Association, more than 34 reactors are currently under construction, 81 are planned, and over 223 more are being proposed.

For the first time since 1978, the American Nuclear Regulatory Commission is receiving applications for new plants, and a flood of them, at that.The commission expects to receive five applications in 2007, and 14 more in 2008....

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Mobiot: The Junta's Accomplices

If you want to support democracy in Burma, phone Gary Player and the other western businessmen propping up the generals.

 

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"Capitalism and Freedom" Unmasked

The Smirking Chimp, Oct 4 2007

 

An era ended November 16, 2006 when economist Milton Friedman died. A torrent of eulogies followed. The Wall Street Journal mourned his loss with the same tribute he credulously used when Ronald Reagan died saying "few people in human history have contributed more to the achievement of human freedom." Economist and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called him a hero and "The Great Liberator" in a New York Times op-ed; the UK Financial Times called him "the last of the great economists;" Terence Corcoran, editor of Canada's National Post, mourned the "free markets" loss of "their last lion;" and Business Week magazine noted the "Death of a Giant" and praised his doctrine that "the best thing government can do is supply the economy with the money it needs and stand aside."

Rarely had so much praise been given anyone so undeserving in light of the human wreckage his legacy left strewn everywhere. He believed government's sole function is "to protect our freedom both from (outside) enemies....and from our fellow-citizens." It's to "preserve law and order (as well as) enforce private contracts, (safeguard private property and) foster competitive markets." Everything else in public hands is socialism that for free-wheeling market fundamentalists like Friedman is blasphemy. He said markets work best unfettered of rules, regulations, onerous taxes, trade barriers, "entrenched interests" and human interference, and the best government is practically none at all as anything it can do private business does better. Democracy and a government of, by and for the people? Forget it.

He preached public wealth should be in private hands, accumulation of profits unrestrained, corporate taxes abolished, and social services curtailed or ended. He believed "economic freedom is an end to itself....and an indispensable means toward (achieving) political freedom." He thought state laws requiring certain occupations be licensed (like doctors) a restriction of freedom. He opposed foreign aid, subsidies, import quotas and tariffs as well as drug laws he called a subsidy to organized crime (which it is as well as to CIA and money laundering international banks earning billions from it) and added "we have no right to use force....to prevent (someone) from committing suicide....drinking alcohol or taking drugs," while saying nothing about major banks and CIA partnering for profit with drug lords.

He favored a constitutional amendment requiring Congress balance the budget because deficits "encourage political irresponsibility." He claimed taxes were onerous and was "in favor of cutting (them) under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever possible...." and make corporations entirely exempt from them. He opposed the minimum wage, supported a flat tax favoring the rich, and believed everyone should have to buy his or her own medical insurance like any other product or service. Can't afford it? Too bad. Get sick? Let the market heal you....

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General says democracy won't help

Retiring military chief declares: American people can’t vote to end Iraq war

In a statement remarkable for its blunt rejection of democracy, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, said Monday that opponents of the war in Iraq could not bring it to an end by voting.

Pace made his comments before an audience that included President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and hundreds of high-ranking Pentagon civilian and military officials, as he swore in his successor as the president’s top military adviser, Admiral Michael Mullen. None of those present made any objection to Pace’s statement.

Outside Ft. Myer, where the ceremony took place, a handful of antiwar demonstrators used a bullhorn to shout their opposition. Reporters inside could hear, “Stop the Killing, George!”, “Arrest the Liar for War Crimes!” and other denunciations of the administration and the Pentagon.

Noting the presence of the demonstrators, Pace said the protest against the war was an exercise of the right of free speech, but that there were limits:

“I just want everyone to understand that this dialogue is not about ‘can we vote our way out of a war.’ We have an enemy who has declared war on us. We are in a war. They want to stop us from living the way we want to live our lives. So the dialogue is not about ‘are we in a war,’ but how and where and when to best fight that war.”

[ ... ]

Pace says that this antiwar majority should not be allowed to use the ballot box to compel a change in policy: the war must go on indefinitely, regardless of the popular will. If there were a national referendum vote to end the war, Pace would presumably demand that the government disregard it and continue the military bloodbath. As he said, concluding his remarks, “We will prevail. There’s no doubt about that.”

The logical conclusion of this argument is the outlawing and forcible suppression of public opposition to the war in Iraq, the suspension of elections and the establishment of a military dictatorship in the United States..."

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Italian Campaign Plans Mass "Vote" Against GM Food

Italian food producers, consumers and conservation groups hope to get three million signatures in a petition drive to ban genetically modified food, a move they hope will renew Europe's rejection of biotech crops.

At a time when the companies that make the GM crops grown widely in North and South America hope that European resistance is dwindling, Italian campaigners said they were confident they could turn the tide.

"What's happening is an extraordinary experiment in participatory democracy," Mario Capanna, chairman of Genetic Rights, one of the members of the "GMO Free" coalition, said.

In hundreds of marketplaces and food fairs across Italy, campaigners have been handing out forms that look like ballot papers.

They invite people to answer "yes" or "no" to whether food production should be "genuine ... founded on biodiversity and free from GMOs".

The campaign, supported by consumer associations, agriculture lobby Coldiretti and green groups like Greenpeace and WWF, hopes to have 3 million signatures by Nov. 15....

 

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International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases

http://www.no-bases.org/

Courant: It's Official: $9.8 Trillion Debt

"...Although Congress' approval of President Bush's request to increase the public debt by another $850 billion received scant national notice last week, it was consequential nonetheless.
By a 53-42 vote, the Senate revised upward the maximum amount of money the government can borrow to $9.815 trillion. That's expected to be enough to cover the Bush administration's final years in office, although no one should count on it. After all, the open-ended war in Iraq and Afghanistan may consume more taxpayer dollars than current projections.

Thus, a Republican president who inherited a budget surplus and campaigned on staying true to GOP conservative fiscal principles will leave office as the biggest national debt builder ever. Since Mr. Bush assumed office, the debt has nearly doubled. For most of those years, Republicans also controlled Congress.

 

[ ... ]

 

One more grim number: In August, the budget deficit grew to $116.9 billion, a record for that month and 81 percent larger than it was in August 2006..."

 

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