syria says ready in case of US military action from afp: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday that Damascus was prepared for all scenarios in its worsening relationship with Washington, including the use of US military force. "A prudent person must make all his calculations, especially when we have to deal with an administration which knows how to strike but does not know how to withdraw," Muallem told reporters at the end of an Arab summit in Damascus.
saudi kingdom 'braces for nuclear war' from press tv: Saudi Arabia is reportedly preparing to counter any 'radioactive hazards' which may result from a US strike on Iran's nuclear plants. Popular government-guided Saudi newspaper Okaz recently reported that the Saudi Shura Council approved of nuclear fallout preparation plans only a day after US Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Kingdom's high ranking officials, including King Abdullah.
police arrest 80yr old anti-war protester at mall from newsday: An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War. Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images."
john cusack movie takes on war profiteers from raw story: John Cusack was on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and spoke about his upcoming film, War. Inc., which according to Cusack focuses on the military-industrial complex. The film, says Cusack, differs from other films inspired by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because, it "has a much more absurdist take on [war]." flashback: cusack: coffin photo ban 'most cowardly political act'
russian bombers fly close to US border from afp: Russian bombers accompanied by Nato fighter jets have completed a patrol off the north west coast of the United States, the Russian air force said on Wednesday, Interfax reported. "NATO fighter jets accompanied the planes of long range aviation in the area of Alaska during the air patrol," Alexander Drobyshevsky, assistant to the head of the Russian air force, was quoted as saying... Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in August 2007 that Moscow was resuming with immediate effect the Cold War practice of sending strategic bombers on long-range flights well beyond its borders.
taiwan plans drills simulating china invasion from afp: Taiwan's defence ministry Tuesday unveiled plans to hold annual war games simulatinga Chinese invasion of the island, despite president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's pledge to ease tensions with Beijing. According to draft plans, this year's war games will begin with a computerised drill in April and peak in September with a large-scale live-fire military exercise, the ministry said. "The exercises are aimed to counter the growing Chinese communist threat," defence ministry spokeswoman Chi Yu-lan said, without providing further details.
US cargo ship fires in suez canal from ap: An American cargo ship under contract to the U.S. Navy opened fire on a small Egyptian boat while moving through the Suez Canal, the U.S. military said Tuesday in a statement. Egyptian authorities said at least one man was killed, but the U.S. said it had no reports of casualties. The Global Patriot, which was under short term charter to the navy's Military Sealift Command, entered the canal from the Red Sea at Suez after dark Monday when it was approached by several small boats, according to both U.S. and Egyptian officials.
osama film super sized at sundance from canoe: As it turns out, finding Osama bin Laden is harder than getting fat eating Big Macs. Who knew? Not Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock apparently, whose highly anticipated documentaryWhere in the World is Osama bin Laden? bowed Monday in front of a sell-out crowd. The project, in which the 37-year-old filmmaker treks across the Middle East in search of the 9/11 mastermind, has set the Internet abuzz with speculation he had succeeded at what the U.S. government has so miserably failed at - namely, hunting down the world's most wanted fugitive.
court sides with 'borat' over etiquette teacher's humiliation from click2houston: Alabama's Supreme Court has sided with British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in a lawsuit filed by an etiquette teacher who unknowingly appeared in his hit movie "Borat." The justices overruled a lower court, saying Kathie Martin signed an agreement stating that only courts in New York could hear disputes that arose from her appearance. That means she can't sue Cohen and the companies that produced the movie in Alabama.
riaa website wiped clean by 'hackers' from torrentfreak: It started out on the social news website Reddit, where a link to a really slow SQL query was posted. While the Reddit users were trying to kill the RIAA server, someone allegedly decided to up the ante and wipe the site’s entire database. The comments on Reddit are only speculation so far. Based on the username, which was apparently “webReadOnly”, it might not have been setup correctly, or someone could have found another way to delete the content form the site.
hollywood cashes in & makes wars easier to support from david swanson: Hollywood may oppose war but it has cashed in handsomely from the 3,000 war-related films it has churned out since 1939, 21 of them Oscar winners for "best picture," a noted economist says. Where "bomb and bullet makers must seize their profits while the fighting is hot," writes David Whitten of Auburn University, Alabama, "movie makers can cash in on a war forever after, and they do. Hollywood, for all its outspokenness against war, created war's popular image."
for god's saic! from op-ed news: Who in the hell is SAIC? Who in the hell is it's former chairman, J. Robert Beyster? For that matter, who in the hell is its current chairman, Kenneth C. Dalhberg? Well, after some virtual footstepping and some practical considerations, my conclusions lead to the word, trouble. Big trouble! ... "Nobody knows who they are," says Glenn Grossenbacher, a Texas lawyer who has battled SAIC in court on a whistle-blowing case. "Everybody knows Northrop Grumman and G.E., but if you went out on the street and asked who the top 10 [defense] contractors are, I can guarantee you that SAIC would not be one of them..."
iran completes enrichment process from press tv: Director of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization says Tehran has completed the enrichment process and can produce its own nuclear fuel. Gholam-Reza Aqazadehsaid the pellets applicable in the 40-megawatt Arak heavy water research reactor have been produced based on existing standards. He added that the fuel manufacturing plant would be ready by September 2008 to provide fuel for Arak research reactor.
ari fleischer’s freedom’s watch advertises iran war from thinkprogress: In September, the New York Times reported that the White House front groupFreedom’s Watch, led by former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, was considering a “national advertising campaign” to make the case for war with Iran, claiming that “Iran poses a direct threat” to U.S. security. Previously, Freedom’s Watch doled out $15 million to flack for the Iraq escalation.
US knew musharraf planned martial law from raw story: The Bush Administration knew that Pakistani strongman Pervez Musharraf planned to institute emergency rule but did not act or speak out about the plan, according to officials with knowledge of the discussion who spoke anonymously in Friday's Wall Street Journal. "In the days before the Nov. 3 announcement, the general's aides and advisers forewarned U.S. diplomats in a series of meetings in Islamabad, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials," the paper said.
from washington post: While wrestling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon is preparing weapons to fight the next battle from space, according to information in the 621-page, House-Senate conference report on the fiscal 2008 defense appropriations bill.
The $459 billion bill, which awaits President Bush's signature, provides $100 million for a new "prompt global strike" program that could deliver a conventional, precision-guided warhead anywhere in the world within two hours. It takes funds away from development of a conventional warhead for the Navy's submarine-launched Trident Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and from an Air Force plan for the Common Aero Vehicle.
The new program, dubbed Falcon, for "Force Application and Launch from CONUS," centers on a small-launch-vehicle concept of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The agency describes Falcon as a "a reusable Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) capable of delivering 12,000 pounds of payload at a distance of 9,000 nautical miles from [the continental United States] in less than two hours."
Hypersonic speed is far greater than the speed of sound. The reusable vehicle being contemplated would "provide the country with significant capability to conduct responsive missions with quick turn-around sortie rates while providing aircraft-like operability and mission-recall capability," according to DARPA...
"Enhancing these capabilities is critical, particularly following the Chinese anti-satellite-weapons demonstration last January," the conferees wrote in their report. They were referring to a Jan. 11 incident in which a Chinese guided missile destroyed an aging weather satellite in orbit.
from sydney morning herald: Arms manufacturers are making record profits from the war on terrorism and unprecedented spending on weapons programs.
The massive earnings have drawn condemnation from Australian defence experts, who say expensive weapons such as jet fighters, warships & satellites are not the way to combat terrorism.
The world's biggest arms maker, Lockheed Martin in the US, maker of fighter jets including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Australia is buying, announced last week it had increased third-quarter profits by 22 per cent to $US11.1 billion...
Northrop Grumman, maker of aircraft carriers, submarines and bombers, increased profits 62 per cent to $US489 million.
At General Dynamics, maker of the Abrams tank, which Australia has just bought, profits climbed 24 per cent to $US544 million.
Britain's BAE said its profits were up 27 per cent to $1.23 billion...
Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, said the big-ticket weapons were designed to contain China, not combat terrorism.
"They don't admit to it. They sell it to the people as a response to terrorism, but that is not what they are doing," Professor White said.
from raw story: Punk singer-songwriter Henry Rollins took on Iraq War profiteers on his Independent Film Channel show this Saturday.
"The invasion and occupation of Iraq and the resulting nightmare we are enduring are for some a depressing, ongoing catastrophe with no end in sight," he said.
"Yet for another group, it is the best thing that could ever happen. ... The corporations that provide services to the military are making more money in this time than ever before. Troop withdrawal is not in their interest."
"Why not bring that overpriced roadshow here to America and treat the citizens to a little of that privatized efficiency?" Rollins went on.
"I'm sure KBR knows what to do with my freedom a lot better than I do. Might as well privatize that, too. Keep it up, Cheney. All you're doing is emboldening me."
from abc news: Halliburton Co., currently the largest military contractor in Iraq with billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts, announced Sunday that it was planning to move its CEO and corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
The move could eventually save the firm a fortune in U.S. taxes, but it is raising serious questions about its priorities and prompting at least one possible congressional hearing.
Dave Lesar, Halliburton's chairman, president and chief executive officer, made the announcement at an energy conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Lesar said the goal of the move was to focus on Eastern Hemisphere "oil exploration and production opportunities, and growing our business here will bring more balance to Halliburton's overall portfolio."
Run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000, Halliburton has a five-year, $16 billion contract with the U.S. Army and total revenues of $22.6 billion in 2006.
Energy analyst Roger Read says if the company formally incorporates itself in the U.A.E., the banking mecca of the Middle East, company profits will soar.
"You'd probably be looking at a tax savings of several hundred million [dollars]. It's a win for the shareholders," Read said.
Move Makes Democrats Suspicious Outrage over that possibility had Halliburton scrambling Sunday to explain it had no plans to incorporate abroad. Still, Democrats are suspicious.
"For one of the largest contractors with the United States government to move its headquarters overseas? [It] just doesn't look good, doesn't sound good, doesn't smell good," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The move may raise serious national security questions too, as happened last year with the canceled port security contract with another U.A.E.-based company, Dubai Ports World. Congressional outrage scuttled that deal; Halliburton will now have some explaining to do to avoid similar scrutiny.
"Obviously a company that has its headquarters overseas should be given a little more scrutiny than an American company," Schumer said. "No question about it."
Halliburton is already being investigated by different government agencies for various allegations of improper business dealings, and it is in the cross hairs of Democrats in Congress for alleged overbilling.
from ap/yahoo: About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk.
The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done.
More than one in six dollars charged by U.S. contractors were questionable or unsupported, nearly triple the amount of waste the Government Accountability Office estimated last fall.
"There is no accountability," said David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."
from wikipedia: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a documentary about the ongoing Iraq War and the behavior of companies with no-bid contracts working within Iraq. The movie was made by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films. The movie criticizes the perceived greed, waste, and ineffectiveness of the contractors in a war that has been privatized by corporations on a historic level. Specifically, the film claims contractors are over-billing the government and doing substandard work while endangering the lives of American soldiers and private citizens. The documentary contends these major four companies are composed of ex-military and ex-government workers who unethically help these companies get and keep enormous contracts and milk the American taxpayer.
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from afp: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Sunday that Damascus was prepared for all scenarios in its worsening relationship with Washington, including the use of US military force. "A prudent person must make all his calculations, especially when we have to deal with an administration which knows how to strike but does not know how to withdraw," Muallem told reporters at the end of an Arab summit in Damascus.
from press tv: Saudi Arabia is reportedly preparing to counter any 'radioactive hazards' which may result from a US strike on Iran's nuclear plants. Popular government-guided Saudi newspaper Okaz recently reported that the Saudi Shura Council approved of nuclear fallout preparation plans only a day after US Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Kingdom's high ranking officials, including King Abdullah.
from raw story: John Cusack was on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher and spoke about his upcoming film, War. Inc., which according to Cusack focuses on the military-industrial complex. The film, says Cusack, differs from other films inspired by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because, it "has a much more absurdist take on [war]."
