At least 12 NATO troops were killed across Afghanistan today, capping what has turned out to be the deadliest August yet since the war began. At least five US troops were among those killed, though the nationalities of all the slain have not yet been released. The deaths bring the NATO toll in Afghanistan to 489 this year, just shy of the record toll set in all of 2009. All eight months so far this year have been the deadliest such month in the war, and there is no indication that trend is going to change.

PressTV: US deaths in Afghan war hit record.

Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq. He investigates the School of the Americas in the U.S. state of Georgia, where General Pinochets torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death-squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina. Duane Clarridge defends the right of the Empire to impose it's peculiar form of democracy on whomsoever... 'Get used to it, world'. Collected scenes from world-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker John Pilger's excellent production, 'The War On Democracy'. THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY 7/10

Wikipedia: Chile under Pinochet
More-Or-Less: Kill tally: At least 3,197 killed following the 1973 military coup d'état.
D. Valentine: The Greatest Covert Operation Ever: The Politics of Terror as the Business of Terror

President Obama praised President Bush's commitment to U.S. troops Tuesday as he announced a close to combat operations in Iraq that he said cost America a "huge price." Speaking from the same desk where Bush launched the war, Obama cast the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom -- demonstrated by the departure of 95,000 U.S. combat troops to a remaining force below 50,000 -- as an opportunity for America to "turn the page," both on American involvement in Iraq and American priorities at home, where the economy is still struggling to regain its footing.

Stars & Stripes: Obama addresses nation, declares 'Operation Iraqi Freedom is over'.
Bill Van Auken: Obama’s Iraq speech: An exercise in cowardice and deceit

Jason Ditz: Obama Lauds Fake End to Iraq War as ‘Historic Moment’ -Praises Bush for 'Commitment to Our Security'. President Barack Obama tonight made his carefully choreographed “end of the Iraq War” speech, assuring Americans that this fake end, as opposed to the other fake ends, stands as an “historic moment” in American history and a “milestone” that “should serve as a reminder to all the world” of America’s military leadership. Little attention was given to the 50,000 US troops still fighting in Iraq, beyond a vague mention to “transitional forces protecting our civilians.” The speech rather focused on the illusory military victory and included claims that security problems in Iraq are among “the lowest on record,” in spite of dramatically escalating attacks on the ground.

William Blum: Things which don't go away. Things the American government and media don't let go of. And neither do I.

The truth that many Americans find hard to take is that that mass U.S. assassination on a scale unequaled in world history lies at the heart of America's military strategy in the Muslim world, a policy both illegal and never seriously debated by Congress or the American people. Conducting assassination operations throughout the 1.3 billon-strong Muslim world will inevitably increase the murder of civilians and thus create exponentially more "enemies," as Gen. McChrystal suggests -- posing a major long-term threat to U.S. national security. This mass assassination program, sold as defending Americans, is actually endangering us all. Those responsible for it, primarily General Petraeus, are recklessly seeking short-term tactical advantage while making an enormous long-term strategic error that could lead to countless American deaths in the years and decades to come. General Petraeus must be replaced, and the U.S. military's policy of direct and mass assassination of Muslims ended.

Antiwar: Scott Horton Interviews Fred Branfman, author of the Alternet article “Mass Assassinations Lie at the Heart of America’s Military Strategy in the Muslim World.” (Audio)
Michel Chossudovsky: America's Holy Crusade against the Muslim World
Pratap Chatterjee: The Secret Killers: Covert Assassins Charged With Hunting Down and Killing Afghans.

A senior Iranian lawmaker says investment of effort into preserving Israel's existence is futile and that the regime should give the Palestinians their rights. "The massive turn out of the world's Muslims on the Quds Day proves the fact that investment of effort to maintain the existence of the Israeli regime is a futile endeavor," deputy head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Hossein Sobhani-Nia said on Wednesday. Initiated by the late Founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Imam Khomeini, the International Quds Day is observed on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims all over the world are urged to hold rallies in support of the Palestinian resistance against what Imam Khomeini commonly referred to as "the illegitimate Israeli regime occupying Palestine."

An unidentified gunman killed four Israelis at a Jewish settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday night, just days before the U.S.-sponsored peace summit was set to begin in Washington. The military wing of the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, claimed responsibility. The shooting, just after 8 p.m. local time, was the deadliest attack Israel has seen in years. Ynet News: Hamas: Attack natural response to enemy's crimes. Palestine-Info: Settlers fire at teenage Palestinian farmers. International Solidarity Movement: Armed settler guards attack mosque in Wadi Hilweh, shots fired at Palestinian residents. Ma'an News: Settlers open fire at Palestinian farmers. You Tube: MEET THE ISRAELI SETTLERS!!! Reham Alhelsi: Zionist Settlers: A Long History of Terrorism

[Editor's Comment:] What is the difference betwen a Zionist squatter ("settler") and a Zionist soldier? -The latter has a uniform. That's one difference. Another one is that whereas the soldiers steal Palestinian land but don't settle on the land themselves, the squatters actually do so. Both groups, however, are choking life out of Palestine and stealing Palestinian land big time. There are more similarities though: Both the squatters and the soldiers kill, maim & torture Palestinians. On top of that, Israel is in fact nothing but a land grabbing military dictatorship masquerading as a so-called democracy. The lawmakers take their orders from the army and the army takes its orders from the settlers & rabbis, both of whom are religious extremists and both of whom are armed & dangerous. Now, the Resistance just killed four of Palestine's tormentors. Let us be clear about this: we do not condemn this attack. But it also needs to be said that nobody should kill unarmed people. However, we do hope the Resistance would kill more armed squatters and soldiers -as many as it would take to reverse the process of ethnical cleansing and Zionist land grab in Palestine.

Some on the Israeli left and some peaceniks who have their heads in a cloud have raised a great hue and cry about these killings. Ignoring the fact that Hamas now has claimed responsibility for them, and trying to save the Hamas of their dreams, they now speculate about who really could have been behind this, assuming that 1) killing these squatters is stupid somehow and that 2) it would only give the regular Zionist army a pretext for yet more attacks against Palestinian civilians. These people haven't realized yet that 1) the killings are not stupid. They are tragic but necessary and 2) that the Zionists fundamentally don't need pretexts of any sort, none whatever. Creating facts on the ground, the Zionists now are carrying out their age-old plan for the so-called Eretz Yisrael, no matter what. More importantly, the peaceniks don't seem to understand that for Palestine ever to be free again, blood has to flow, and abundantly so. There are no two ways about this. These people have no deeper understanding of the problem of Zionism, and as a consequence, they end up taking the side of the oppressors. A good place for them to begin would be to analyze the relationship between the squatters and the conscripted Zionist army. They might eventually come to the conclusion that the squatters are but the spearhead of a militant Zionist movement which has its roots in the age-old Talmudic mindset permeating all of Israeli society. This mindset has no room for "the other" -in this case the Palestians, all of whom are slated for etnical cleansing and/or utter extinction. Fools on the left and unrealistic peaceniks in the solidarity movement ought to shut up and analyze the dire predicament of the Palestinians plus the Zionist mindset. Rather than being the dupes of the Zionists, trying to drive a wedge between Hamas and the Palestinian people, we should all support Hamas and stop being coy about militant resistance against oppression.

As soon as it was published late last year,Torat Ha’Melech sparked a national uproar. When I went into the Jewish religious book emporium, Pomeranz, in central Jerusalem to inquire about the availability of a book called Torat Ha’Melech, or the King’s Torah, a commotion immediately ensued. “Are you sure you want it?” the owner, M. Pomeranz, asked me half-jokingly. “The Shabak [Israel's internal security service] is going to want a word with you if you do.” As customers stopped browsing and began to stare in my direction, Pomeranz pointed to a security camera affixed to a wall. “See that?” he told me. “It goes straight to the Shabak!”

According to the book’s author, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, “Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and should be killed in order to “curb their evil inclinations.” “If we kill a gentile who has has violated one of the seven commandments… there is nothing wrong with the murder,” Shapira insisted. Citing Jewish law as his source (or at least a very selective interpretation of it) he declared: “There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”

Xymphora: "How To Kill Goyim And Influence People: Leading Israeli Rabbis Defend Manual for For Killing Non-Jews" You can find fruitcakes in every religion making outrageously violent racist statements. However, the Jewish case is different. For one thing, Jewish religious writing contains more explicitly violent hatred against other groups. More importantly, Israel is a military dictatorship run by generals who take religious direction from the settler movement, and these Jewish fruitcakes are leaders of the settler movement. The Jewish crazies have inspired real violence, and their words could lead to massive genocide. It is not improper or bigoted to point out the direct connection between Jewish religious writing and Israeli state violence, particularly as the connection is becoming more dangerous.

Crossing The Crescent: The Rise of Ultra-Semitism in Israel

Zuabi testified before UN panel probing Israeli naval commando raid that left nine Turkish citizens dead on May 31. Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zuabi testified before a United Nations panel probing Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, telling the panel that commandos who boarded the ships intended to kill, Army Radio reported on Tuesday. A UN inquiry team began hearings on Monday with Jordanian activists about the May 31 Israeli raid on a Turkish ship trying to break an Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the raid.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair regrets "with every fibre of his being" the victims of the Iraq war, but had no regrets over ousting Saddam Hussein, he writes in his memoirs published on Wednesday. Tony Blair’s long-awaited memoir says the former British prime minister doesn’t regret the Iraq war - although he wept for the victims - and carries revelations about the politician’s alcohol use, his interactions with the queen and his testy relationship with his successor. Tony Blair’s “A Journey” was stirring political passions as it hit bookstores Wednesday, with excerpts revealing that the former British prime minister cried for soldiers and civilians killed in Iraq, but still thought it was right to invade and topple Saddam Hussein. The decision to go to war remains Blair’s most divisive legacy. In excerpts from the book released by the publisher late Tuesday, Blair says

“I ... regret with every fibre of my being the loss of those who died.” “Tears, though there have been many, do not encompass it,” he says. But, he says, “on the basis of what we do know now, I still believe that leaving Saddam in power was a bigger risk to our security than removing him and that, terrible though the aftermath was, the reality of Saddam and his sons in charge of Iraq would at least arguably be much worse.” “I can’t regret the decision to go to war,” he says.

AWIP: To gasps from the gallery, Blair said we should be proud of the war.
AWIP: Former MI5 chief demolishes Blair's defence of the Iraq war.
Chris Floyd: The Glittering Prizes: War Crime Continues to Pay.

[And in case you thought this war monger had learnt anything from his adventures in the Balkans and Iraq, check this out:]

Daily Telegraph: Tony Blair memoirs: we must be prepared for attack on Iran.

Griffin's COGNITIVE INFILTRATION is a lucid and compelling exposure of the contempt held by the official defenders the 9/11 myth for dissenters who have seen through their Big Lie. These officials expect that no one will be able to penetrate the murk of Sunstein's latest defense of the pretext for the US wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, now covertly expanding into many other countries. But with David Ray Griffin's book, everyone who is concerned with bringing their carnage and criminality to a stop, as well as to reverse the rapid erosion of civil liberties in this country, will have no difficulty remaining clear-headed in the face of the "cognitive infiltration" carried out by the holders of high office and their agents.

The building of new Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories will be one of the key and determining issues in upcoming peace talks that will be held in the US capital Washington DC. Israel has been criticised by all sides, including the US, for its illegal construction of thousands of homes, which have been separated by an imposing wall. Nour Odeh reports from the Palestinian village of Al-Walajeh in the West Bank, where many are suffering from the unlawful settlements.

U.S. forces lost 22 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly to roadside bombs, since Friday, marking a bloody step-up in the insurgency as a major U.S.-led offensive seeks to capture the spiritual homeland of the Taliban movement in Kandahar. Five more U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday, while three Afghan workers for the British charity Oxfam were killed by a roadside bomb in Badakhshan, which had been one of the safer places in the country.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released findings Monday on inspections carried out in late August of the facilities of two egg companies at the center of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened thousands in the US in recent months. The companies have issued recalls of more than 550 million potentially contaminated eggs. Inspectors found abominable conditions at Iowa farms operated by Quality Egg—parent company of Wright County Egg—and Hillandale Farms. Their findings included piles of manure, seeping manure, uncaged birds tracking manure, maggots and flies too numerous to count, and patently unsanitary work methods.

Submarines in the depths of Baikal may have solved one of the great mysteries of the Civil War. The long-lost gold of White commander Alexander Kolchak could be within reach of submersibles exploring the lake as part of a scientific mission. Environmentalists working with the mission told journalists: “Deep-sea vehicles found rectangular blocks with a metallic gleam, like gold, 400 metres below the surface.” Local residents say that sunken railway wagons found last year match those used on the Circum-Baikal Railway during the Civil War, fuelling rumours that the Admiral’s lost riches could be nearby. And the latest find, on the bed of Cape Tolstoy, has reinforced that hope.

Hurricane Earl could still stay out over the Atlantic, but it’s going to be a close call. So East Coast residents should practice evacuation in case hurricane Earl comes ashore. As powerful hurricane Earl heads away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, federal officials are warning coastal residents from North Carolina to Maine to plan evacuation routes in case they need to seek safer ground. Based on the expected storm track, Earl may stay just out to sea and parallel the coast. But a storm surge from the hurricane could cause significant damage to the coast as its winds have already hit 135 miles per hour. Bill Read, the director of the National Hurricane Center, said Tuesday that he expects the first signs of the storm to come late Wednesday with big waves along the North Carolina coast. By Friday, Long Island and Cape Cod could see the big swells and dangerous rip currents.

A gunman shot dead six members of a Roma gipsy family and another woman in the Slovakian capital Bratislava yesterday. Fourteen more people were wounded in a gun battle with police following the murders - including a three-year-old boy and an officer who was shot in the head - before the gunman committed suicide. His identity and motives are still being investigated, police chief Jaroslav Spisiak said, although it is known that he was a Slovak aged about 50.

AWIP: Stop this state persecution of Roma (France)

At least six more US-led soldiers have lost their lives in separate incidents in the troubled eastern and southern areas of Afghanistan. NATO issued a statement on Tuesday, announcing that four American soldiers were killed in a bombing attack in eastern parts of Afghanistan. In a separate incident, a fifth US soldier died in a militant attack in southern Afghanistan. The deaths bring the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan since Friday to 22. Meanwhile, an Estonian soldier died of injuries sustained in a bomb attack in southern Helmand Province. At least 485 US-led forces have lost their lives in Afghanistan so far this year. The increasing number of troop casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the continuation of the Afghan war.