Emily Dugan, Nina Lakhani, David Randall, Victoria Richards & Rachel Shields
The Independent

"The largest leak in history reveals the true extent of the bloodshed unleashed by the decision to go to war in Iraq – and adds at least 15,000 to its death toll."

So now we begin to know the full extent of what Tony Blair called the blood price. A detainee tortured with live electrical wires here, children shot by US troops at a checkpoint there, insurgents using children to carry out suicide bombings somewhere else; on and on, through 391,832 documents. At the Pentagon, these messages were the day-to-day commonplaces of staff inboxes; for Iraqis, they detail, in the emotionless jargon of the US military, nothing less than the hacking open of a nation's veins.

Today, seven and a half years on from the order to invade, the largest leak in history has shown, far more than has been hitherto known, just what was unleashed by that declaration of war. The Iraqi security services tortured hundreds, and the US military watched, noted and emailed, but rarely intervened. A US helicopter gunship crew were ordered to shoot insurgents trying to surrender. A doctor sold al-Qa'ida a list of female patients with learning difficulties so they could be duped into being suicide bombers. A private US company, which made millions of dollars from the outsourcing of security duties, killed civilians. And the Americans, who have always claimed never to count civilian deaths, were in fact secretly logging them. At a conservative estimate, the new documents add at least 15,000 to the war's death toll.

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Henry Makow
Henry Makow's Blog

Mr. Walter Rothschild riding on one of his tortoises...

Jeff Rense's website and radio program represent an oasis of truth for countless people around the world who can still think for themselves. That's why it was both puzzling and painful to witness a vituperative attack on Jeff by his erstwhile friend and ally Mark Glenn. Both these men are courageous and outspoken opponents of Zionist World Government. What triggered Glenn's attack?

Among the thousands of articles Jeff has posted since last summer were two which Mark felt were anti Islam. Mark felt they played into the hands of Zionists who are trying to pit Christians against Muslims and asked Jeff to remove them. Jeff refused. He will not permit anyone to censor his news content or tell him how to run his site. Mark retaliated by launching a vitriolic attack on Jeff.

Ironically, both imitated the hated Zionists by playing the "hate card." Mark accused Jeff of inciting hatred against Muslims. Jeff accused Mark of inciting Muslim terror against him personally. Jeff threatened to call the FBI and Homeland Security on Mark. Mark said Jeff was threatening Mark's wife and nine children.

When I suggested to Jeff that Homeland Security is the antithesis of everything he represents, he agreed. He was just trying to get Mark to understand how seriously he took Mark's readers' vitriol.

Jeff argued that these two articles were exceptions among thousands that are pro-Muslim or expose the Zionist NWO threat.

One was a ridiculous Zionist propaganda piece that he had meant to label as such. He expected his readers to recognize it.

Mark Glenn certainly didn't nor did he accept Jeff's explanation. It was called "Demoting Islam's Religious Status," by Martel Sobiesky and argued that Islam isn't a religion.

The other article by Devvy Kidd had the inflammatory title, "Islam a Cancer Oozing Across America" and described the excesses of radical Islam. Jeff felt Devvy was a respected contributor and had a right to examine these excesses. Jeff points to his Disclaimer at the bottom of every article. Posting does not necessarily mean his endorsement.

Mark basically felt that Jeff should present a consistent party line. Jeff felt that good journalism means presenting a range of views. He consistently posted links to Mark's own articles. By Mark's own estimation, Jeff was responsible for 10-15,000 readers each time. In any case, we had two people who should have been cooperating, draining each others' batteries.

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Stephen Lendman

Besides mass slaughter and destruction, wars create refugees, millions at times, uprooted, displaced and homeless, on their own somehow to survive. Israel's "War of Independence" was no different, dispossessing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, a story Western media reports don't explain or even mention.

In his book, "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story," Ramzy Baroud recounted his father Mohammed's story. Born in 1938 in Beit Daras village, he saw it conquered, leveled and erased, except from the memory he took to his grave. A captive in his own land, he lived years as a Gaza Nuseirat camp refugee, raising his family including son Ramzy, dreaming always of going home, struggling as a freedom fighter to end decades of conflict, violence, occupation, and oppression, what Edward Said called "a slow death," shattered hopes, and inexorable toll of its incalculable horror to so many.

Spanning over seven decades of history and survivor recollections, it tells a powerful firsthand story of those who lived it, not the airbrushed Western version of the new Israeli state, born in blood, mass slaughter, destruction, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of survivors, to this day oppressed, harassed, intimidated, humiliated, attacked and arrested for being Muslims, not Jews on their own land, in their own country, illegally occupied for decades.

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Flora Nicoletta
uruknet.info

Emad Marzuq, 2006 - Photo by Caritas-Gaza

"One night Emad was walking in the neighborhood of Shejayia in Gaza City. While he was speaking on his cell phone a missile was fired at him. His brothers explained me that inside such kind of missile there are some sort of turning knives which cut everything."

"In our Qur'an it is written that everyone of us has two angels on his shoulders. On the right, angel Atid registers all our good actions. On the left, angel Raqib registers all our sins and bad actions. On Judgment Day, angel Esrafil will ask us to stand up in front of God and the books will be read.

We the Palestinian people keep a book like the two angels for all the countries and all the men. We will never close the books till the day will come for their Judgment. They will have to respond to all the crimes and atrocities committed against our nation, since more than a century." ~ Mohammad, Gaza.

When, in June 1967, Israel captured the Gaza Strip, the West Bank including Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the then Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan declared it would be an enlighted occupation. And, indeed, since 33 years now the occupied experience day in, day out the enlighted occupation.

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