A US drone aircraft has fired several missiles into northwest Pakistan, killing at least ten people and injuring several others. According to Pakistani officials, the missiles targeted a compound located west of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are said to be in critical condition. AWIP: U.S. Drone Strike deaths prompt AF/PAK payback. This gives the CIA a pretext for more US terror. There will be more AF/PAK payback.

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons. Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

Ynet News: Report: US shipping arms ahead of strike on Iran:

Expert: 'They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran. US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours.'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Iran's nuclear rights should be respected and it is only a rumor that Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Speaking before meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London on Tuesday, Erdogan also questioned why countries like Israel did not face calls from the international community to disarm, while Iran did. "It's only rumors that Iran is making nuclear weapons," Erdogan told the BBC, speaking through an interpreter. "I believe it is Iran's most natural right to employ nuclear energy for civilian purposes," AFP quoted the Turkish premier as saying. He added that countries with nuclear weapons "are not in a position to turn to another country and to say: 'Oh, you are not supposed to produce nuclear weapons.'"

The US has affirmed its "unshakeable" and "unbreakable" bond with Israel amid the allies' most public spat in years over Israel's announcement that it would build 1,600 new settler homes. "We have an absolute commitment to Israel's security. We have a close, unshakeable bond between the United States and Israel," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said in Washington on Tuesday. Her comments appeared to be much softer in tone following days of tough rhetoric after Israel announced last week that it would approve construction of a Jewish housing project in East Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians and jeopardising newly agreed indirect talks. AWIP: Clinton pledges 'unshakeable' bond with Israel. BBC: US backs down as per usual in row with Israel. CSM: Netanyahu's brother-in-law calls Obama anti-semite.

AntiWar: Israel vs. America: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do:

The outcry in Congress, from Democrats as well as Republicans, in Israel’s defense has been almost comical in its outlandish support for a foreign country over one’s own: a kind of inverse Bizarro-patriotism of the sort that we haven’t seen since US leftists waved the flag of the National Liberation Front at antiwar rallies during the Vietnam era. The big difference being that this fifth column is enormously successful and influential, motivating Democrats to denounce a President and an administration of their own party, and orchestrating such an outcry that the Pentagon and the State Department will be forced to back down.

News emerged yesterday of another building project of more than 300 homes planned for East Jerusalem, even as Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, sought to step back from a growing public feud with Israel over its settlement policies. A notice on the website of the Israel Lands Authority invited bids on construction of 309 new homes in the Jewish suburb of Neve Yaakov, located in north-east Jerusalem.

Riots broke out in Jerusalem and the West Bank yesterday as Palestinians staged a “day of rage” in protest at Israeli plans to build 1,600 new homes in the disputed east of the city. The announcement of the planned construction caused the worst diplomatic crisis in decades between Israel and its most important ally, the United States. Washington’s envoy, George Mitchell, yesterday abruptly postponed his trip to the region in protest.

The leader of a Sunni terrorist group fighting against Shiites in Iran says his organization has close links with the CIA. The head of the Jundullah group was captured earlier this week in the south of the country. Abol-malik Rigi says he met the U.S. agents in Pakistan, who promised support for carrying out terrorist attacks in Iran. AWIP: Iran captures top CIA agents, and break up US terrorist networks in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. + Former US spy confirms Rigi's CIA link, rejects ties.

The commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan has issued new rules to rein in special forces after a spate of botched operations left scores of civilians dead. Days after an investigation by The Times revealed that two pregnant women and a teenage girl were killed in a night raid by American special forces, General Stanley McChrystal admitted that troops under different commands were sometimes working at cross-purposes. AWIP: Afghan family killed as special forces defy night raid ban + Nato ‘covered up’ botched night raid in Afghanistan that killed five + This Time It's Pregnant Women: Another US Atrocity in the Bush-Obama War in Afghanistan + US military created private spy and murder squad in Afghanistan + Many Thousand Gone

A law that provides blanket immunity and pardons former members of Afghanistan’s armed factions for war crimes and human rights abuses committed prior to December 2001 was quietly enacted three years ago by parliament, despite previous assurances by President Hamid Karzai that he would not sign it or allow it to take effect. According to Waheed Omer, Karzai’s spokesman, the amnesty law was enacted because it was approved by two-thirds of parliament and therefore did not need Karzai’s signature. Parliament is made up largely of former warlords who were accused by Afghans and human rights groups of war crimes.

Malalai Joya: An Afghan Politician Pushes for a Comeback:

Back in her homeland, Ms. Joya said, the NATO forces were perpetuating the repression of women by propping up warlords she described as interchangeable with the Taliban.

* Disadvantaged children are sought as human guinea pigs - even toddlers and infants, 
  some living in foster care;
* Elderly people with impaired reasoning capacity, some living 
  in nursing homes;
* People disabled by mental or physical illness;
* Illegal immigrants and disadvantaged populations living in underdeveloped countries;
* Prisoners, including members of the armed forces.

Iran and Pakistan have signed a deal to construct a pipeline connecting the two neighboring countries, a project that was strongly opposed by the US. Pakistan has argued that the pipeline, which will connect Iran's South Pars gas field with Pakistan's Balochistan and Sindh provinces, is essential for efforts to meet its energy needs. "It's in our legitimate economic interests," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said after the deal was signed on Tuesday.

The foreign troop douche bag in full fatigues says "Buildings going to collapse.. Nothing informations.." while putting his hand on the camera and pointing it at his feet.

This is Sarah Corrie Simpson's first visit to Israel. Her younger sister, Rachel Corrie, was killed by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer in Gaza in 2003, at the age of 23. Now, the family is suing the state in the Haifa District Court. "I'm glad the day is finally here, that the eyewitnesses are having a chance to talk in a court of law," she said in an interview with Haaretz on Thursday. "It's been seven long years." AWIP/Jonathan Cook: Rachel Corrie family finally puts Israel in dock. Palestine Chronicle: Rachel Corrie's Memory, Israel's Image.

March 16, 2010

Below is a letter I sent to the Corries but more importantly to executive and legislative members in Washington State where Rachel Corrie was a resident. It includes the Governor, Lt. Governor, Senators and Congressmen in D.C. and senators and members of the general assembly in Washington State as well as the media.

March 4, 2010
Mr. and Mrs. Corrie
Honorable Members of the Executive and Legislative Branch Washington State "Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims." -British Historian Arnold Toynbee

This coming March 16 will be the seventh anniversary of Israel's deliberate murder of a 23 year old young idealist college student from Olympia, Washington named Rachel Corrie. Her story and the shocking photos of her murder can be found in the links below.

Jerusalem – Ma'an – Right-wing ultra-orthodox Jews handed out Arabic fliers calling on "non-Jews to leave the land of Israel," in the streets of Jerusalem on Sunday, witnesses reported. The fliers, quoting Torah and Qur'an, used scripture to urge Palestinians living in the city to leave. "The Old Testament says the land of Israel is small and belongs to Jews only. Others are not allowed to stay permanently," the flier read. Jewish exile from ancient Israel was due to a failure of compliance with divine orders, the paper explained, adding "now, after the Jewish people returned to Israel, the people of Israel have complied with divine orders. "Thus, we ask you to leave the land of Israel in order to guarantee peace in this land. There are verses in the Old Testament and in the Quran that prove this."

Intensified clashes between US-led occupying forces and Taliban and Afghan resistance fighters have seen a substantial increase in casualties for both sides, and a rising death toll for local civilians. Helmand and Kandahar provinces, on Afghanistan’s south-western border with Pakistan, remain the focus of Washington’s military escalation. Having captured Marjah town in Helmand last month, US military commanders are waiting for the remainder of the 30,000 additional troops deployed by President Barack Obama before launching a summer offensive in Afghanistan’s second largest city, Kandahar.

The world's shortest man, China's He Pingping who was just over 74 cm tall (29 inches), has died at the age of 21 from apparent heart complications, the Guinness World Records book said. He, who suffered a form of primordial dwarfism and was recognized as a world-record holder in 2008, died on Saturday in Rome, where he was taking part in a TV show.