the news is just weirder and weirder. mrs. henry wonders... is it just her?

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quotable quotes from http://www.liberalartsmafia.com/:

"Our armies do not come into your cities or lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

— British Lt. Gen. Stanley Maude, after his army, advancing from Basra in 1915, conquered and seized the city of Baghdad, inaugurating decades of British rule and plunder.

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http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,6292835%255E25777,00.html

"These are good days in the history of freedom," the US President said at the White House. "...Today the world is safer." ...Bush made the comments on the war at a rally for his tax-cut proposals.

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http://www.newsfrombabylon.com/

PHILADELPHIA -- Muslim groups were stunned last week when President Bush nominated Daniel Pipes to the board of the United States Institute of Peace, a federal think tank.

For years, the outspoken director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia has called for a war on Islamic extremism, declaring... "What we need to do is inspire fear, not affection." The Harvard-trained scholar has declared Islamic extremists are conspiring to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Koran, that one in 10 American Muslims are militants and suggested the government needs to monitor Muslims and mosques across the country. "Militant Islam is comparable to Fascism and Communism," he says. "It is a threat to our way of life." [for more info, see this profile: http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann1207.html]

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http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/04/12/bushcda_030412

OTTAWA - U.S. President George W. Bush isn't coming to Canada as planned next month, CBC News confirmed Saturday, and no new date has been announced... In Washington, a source told Radio-Canada the visit could go ahead sometime this fall. But there is speculation it may not happen until after Chrétien leaves office in February.

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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/12/MN264391.DTL

With Vice President Dick Cheney casting the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, Congress approved a $2,200,000,000,000.00 budget plan on Friday.

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http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0414SaddamSon-ON.html

Saddam Hussein's eldest son Odai lived a life of fast cars, expensive liquor and easy women, a tour through his bombed house showed Monday. The walls of a gym were plastered with photographs of women downloaded from the Internet... Among the photos were those of Jenna and Barbara Bush, President Bush's 21-year-old daughters, "dressed up very nice in evening clothes," Ballanco said, adding that soldiers took them "to protect the president."

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http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WAR_HOTEL_RAID?SITE=PAAPA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. Marines looking for hardcore Iraqi fighters searched rooms early Tuesday in the hotel that serves as headquarters for most foreign journalists in Baghdad, apparently taking some people into custody. The Marines had keys to the rooms, but in cases where the doors were bolted, they kicked them down, rousting journalists from their beds and pointing M-16s in their faces, footage from Associated Press Television News showed. Marines were seen guarding suspects in a hall; interrogating a man who claimed to be a cameraman; and breaking down a door to get to the roof.

..."This building wasn't 100 percent safe and we're making sure it is," Marine Sgt. Jose Guillen said. "There weren't any gunshots or anything, but intelligence thought it wasn't 100 percent safe." The raids hit the 16th and 17th floors, where journalists with CNN, Turkish TV, Japanese TV and other networks were staying.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/international/worldspecial/13BAGH.html?ex=1051186391&ei=1&en=ac5d346cb884cc6b

The National Museum of Iraq recorded a history of civilizations that began to flourish in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia more than 7,000 years ago. But once American troops entered Baghdad in sufficient force to topple Saddam Hussein's government this week, it took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed... The 28 galleries of the museum and vaults with huge steel doors guarding storage chambers that descend floor after floor into unlighted darkness had been completely ransacked... Officials with crumpled spirits fought back tears and anger at American troops... Thousands of looters... poured into the museum after daybreak on Thursday and remained until dusk on Friday, with only one intervention by American forces, lasting about half an hour, at lunchtime on Thursday. Nothing remained, museum officials said... American commanders have said they lack the troops to curb the looting.

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bob fisk begs the answer

http://middleeastinfo.org/article2452.html

...The National Library and Archives ­ a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq ­ were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze... Amid the ashes of Iraqi history, I found a file blowing in the wind outside: pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia, and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.

...When I caught sight of the Koranic library burning ­ flames 100 feet high were bursting from the windows ­ I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines' Civil Affairs Bureau. An officer shouted to a colleague that "this guy says some biblical [sic] library is on fire". I gave the map location, the precise name ­ in Arabic and English. I said the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn't an American at the scene ­ and the flames were shooting 200 feet into the air.

...There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad... The older files and archives were on the upper floors of the library where petrol must have been used to set fire so expertly to the building. The heat was such that the marble flooring had buckled upwards and the concrete stairs that I climbed had been cracked. The papers on the floor were almost too hot to touch, bore no print or writing, and crumbled into ash the moment I picked them up. Again, standing in this shroud of blue smoke and embers, I asked the same question: why?

...For almost a thousand years, Baghdad was the cultural capital of the Arab world, the most literate population in the Middle East. Genghis Khan's grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq. Why?

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-643427,00.html

April 12th-- The White House and Downing Street defended [their] troops’ inaction, saying that lawlessness was a short-term reaction to years of oppression and would soon subside... Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said... Freedom... is sometimes “untidy”. Tony Blair’s official spokesman [said] “... Initial disorder does give way to stability.”

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/13/1050172477659.html

April 14 2003-- Iraqi Muslims came to the aid of Baghdad's tiny Jewish community yesterday, chasing out looters trying to sack its cultural centre in the heart of the capital. "At 3am, I saw two men, one with a beard, on the roof of the Jewish community house and I cried out to my friend, 'Hossam, bring the Kalashnikovs!'" said Hassam Kassam, 21.

Neither Hassan nor Hossam, who is the guard at the centre, was armed at the time but the threat worked in scaring off the intruders. Two hours later, the looters returned again and Hassan Kassem used the trick once more... Yesterday, Hossam the guard left to look for a real gun in case the persistent thieves returned.

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/117160_bush12.html

April 12th-- WASHINGTON -- President Bush declared yesterday... that the war in Iraq would not be over until it [Iraq, that is, not the war] had been cleared of weapons of mass destruction. [the war itself gets to keep its WMD, i guess --mrs.h]

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2946715.stm

The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq... It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term effects.

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http://www.unep.org/Documents/Default.asp?ArticleID=3952&DocumentID=309

6 April 2003 – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is recommending that a scientific assessment of sites targeted with weapons containing depleted uranium (DU) be conducted in Iraq as soon as conditions permit.

...UNEP... has published assessments of DU impacts in Kosovo (2001), Serbia and Montenegro (2002) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2003)... The three studies concluded that, while radiation can be detected at DU sites, the levels are so low that they do not pose a threat to human health and the environment. At the same time, the studies identified a number of remaining scientific uncertainties that should be further explored. These include the extent to which DU on the ground can filter through the soil and eventually contaminate groundwater, and the possibility that DU dust could later be re-suspended in the air by wind... with the risk that it could be breathed in. The Balkans assessments were made two to sevens years after the use of DU weapons.

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a teensy meterology lesson

http://www.ccrc.sr.unh.edu/~cpw/Eolian94/eolian.html

Dust derived from the arid and semi-arid regions of the globe is an important component of Earth's tropospheric aerosol burden. While the Sahara is the single largest global source, deserts of the Asian continent are also a significant source of airborne dust in the northern hemisphere. However, our knowledge of Asian dust originates primarily from atmospheric and ocean sediment sampling programs... Dust storms are a frequent occurrence in southwest Asia.

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radioactive dust coming soon to a respiratory system near you!

http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=5897

The beginning of spring on the Arabian Peninsula, generally around the middle of February, is usually an accurate barometer for the onset of sandstorms... Open any guidebook, and it will allude to the local sandstorms, or shamals, that occur throughout the year... Shamal winds at several Southwest Asia international airports have been recorded as high as 43 knots, or about 50 miles per hour. Even though a recent shamal covered all of Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, the Sinai Peninsula and the northern third of Saudi Arabia, there does come an ending, because there is simply only so much dry top soil and sand to redistribute.

A shamal can also blow sand out to sea for hundreds of miles.

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always look on the bright side of life

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993603

Worms contaminated by radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear accident have started having sex... Gennady Polikarpov and Victoria Tsytsugina from the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol studied the reproduction of certain sedimentary worms that are vital to aquatic ecosystems. They compared the behaviour of three species in a lake near Chernobyl with the same species in a lake 20 kilometres away... Two species had switched from asexual to sexual reproduction... Polikarpov thinks the worms have switched to sexual reproduction in an attempt to protect themselves from the radiation. Sexual reproduction allows natural selection to promote genes that offer better protection.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=396733

The few [WMD] "discoveries" trumpeted in the media – the odd barrel here, a few dozen shells there – have not been on a scale that could reasonably justify the unprovoked military invasion of a sovereign country, and in most cases have been proven to been no more than rumour... The Wall Street Journal, one of the administration's biggest cheerleaders, has warned of the "widespread scepticism" the White House can expect if it does not make significant, and undisputed, discoveries of forbidden weapons.

Before the war, American intelligence officials said that they had a list of 14,000 sites where, they suspected, chemical or biological agents had been harboured, as well as the delivery systems to deploy them. A substantial number of those sites have been inspected by the invading troops. Evidence to date of a "grave and gathering" threat: precisely zero.

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speaking of grave and growing threats...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,936375,00.html

Doctors in Iraq's second city, Basra, warned yesterday of an epidemic as a majority of the 1,300,000 residents were still without safe drinking water three weeks after the war began. Attempts to restore the supply have failed... Uday Abdul Bakri, general surgeon at the 600-bed Basra general hospital, said the hospital was dealing with many diarrhoea cases... "I think there will be an epidemic," he said.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12844657&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=CRITICAL%20CONDITION

BRITAIN is pulling a medical ship and field clinic out of Iraq even though there are only two hospitals left open in Baghdad... The Red Cross said 33 of the 35 hospitals in Baghdad were "no longer functioning".But the Ministry of Defence announced on Friday that it was sending home dozens of British doctors and nurses with 33 Field Hospital and medical ship RFA Argus. It said there was "no requirement for medical aid to be imported at the moment".

...In Baghdad's Medical City - once a complex of four hospitals - and one of the facilities still open, all 2,400 beds are full. Another 300 patients were queuing to get in yesterday. There are just two nurses and a handful of doctors working. There is no running water to clean wounds or sterilise instruments and no electricity to run equipment or light the wards. Many rooms are filthy and splattered with blood. Most medical centres have no drugs, beds or even simple instruments including stethoscopes because they have been pillaged during days of looting. Experts fear many will die from simple infections. Doctors and nurses have been attacked as they try to protect their patients and many have fled. One medic has been shot dead, another wounded.

For days US Marines looked on and did nothing to stop the looting. They blamed a lack of manpower but they had soldiers guarding Baghdad's oil headquarters.

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12844651&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=NURSE%27S%20DESPERATE%20PLEA%20TO%20BLAIR%20AND%20BUSH%3A%20GET%20ALI%20OUT

Tony Blair today pledged to help tragic Iraqi youngster Ali Ismaeel Abbas. He said Britain would do all it could for the 12-year-old, who needs urgent medical treatment after losing both arms in a bombing raid.

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http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=247014&lang=e&dir=news

Nizar Khazraji, a prominent Iraqi general who defected to the West, was assassinated Monday on his way to attend a U.S.-called meeting of opposition groups... In February last year, London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat quoted opposition sources in Syria as saying the US had chosen Khazraji to run Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam. The CIA was reported to have helped him escape to Kuwait from house arrest in Denmark, where prosecutors were investigating his alleged role in gas attacks on the Iraqi Kurds.

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http://www.msnbc.com/news/898423.asp?0cv=CB10&cp1=1

WASHINGTON, April 12 — In a rare Saturday session, Congress sent President Bush a $79,000,000,000.00 spending measure to finance wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reward key allies, bolster anti-terrorism efforts and help struggling airlines.

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india announces it also has struggling airlines, must go to war

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,182894,00.html

The Times of India reported yesterday that... the rhetoric from the subcontinent has rung alarm bells in Washington-- particularly after Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said Pakistan was a fit case for pre-emptive action along the same lines as the US strike on Iraq... The Times of India said a stream of US officials... were likely to make a beeline for the region.

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http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_233476,00050004.htm

A top Israeli official on Monday warned Syria not to "play with fire" after Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara made a strong anti-Israeli statement... The Israeli official said that at this stage Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war [and still occupies them], was restricting itself to "supporting US efforts to stop Syrian support for terrorism".

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http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=437182003

"We say to Mr Bush that Syria has no chemical weapons and that the only chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in the region are in Israel, which is threatening its neighbours and occupying their land," said Buthaina Shaaban, a foreign ministry spokeswoman. "Also, there was never any co-operation between Damascus and Baghdad, our support was for the Iraqi people who have suffered the plight of wars," she added.

Farouk al-Sharaa, Syria’s foreign minister, suggested the US’s threats had originated with Israel, which is now using Washington to pick off its enemies in the Middle East. "Believe me, even the Israelis will pay the price for it in the future if they don’t tell their friends in Washington to stop it. They are encouraging a very sinister game," he said.

...The [British] Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the [British] Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the [British] Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, said that there were "no plans" to attack Syria... [but] Mr Straw called for Damascus to realise there is a new era in foreign relations and that he should co-operate with the US. "It’s very important for Syria to appreciate that there is a new reality now."

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http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=283271&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Two of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's senior aides will go to Washington for separate talks this week... Israel will suggest that the United States also take care [sic] of Iran and Syria.

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http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/103/nation/Bush_aides_press_preemptive_deterrence_in_Mideast%2B.shtml

A tight-knit group of Bush administration advisers... are urging the president to threaten military force against other authoritarian regimes with terrorist ties, including Syria and Iran, according to administration officials. This emerging strategy of ''preemptive deterrence'' received an important boost on Friday when members of Congress... proposed legislation authorizing the White House to impose stiff penalties, including diplomatic sanctions, on Syria.

...Neoconservative proponents of preemptive deterrence hope the Iraq war will jump-start a wider effort to remake the Middle East.

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http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,935959,00.html

The United States has pledged to tackle the Syrian-backed Hizbollah group in the next phase of its 'war on terror' in a move which could threaten military action against President Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus. The move is part of Washington's efforts to persuade Israel to support a new peace settlement with the Palestinians.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030413/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_us_syria&cid=1514&ncid=1473

April 13th - US forces engaged Syrian nationals in combat in Baghdad overnight, killing many of them, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld's assertions in US television interviews echoed similar comments by Army General Tommy Franks, the US commander, but both men stopped short of saying what Washington might do about it... Rumsfeld said Syria was "a very active sponsor of terrorists."

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april 14th

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2563040

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday accused Syria of carrying out tests involving chemical weapons over the past 12 to 15 months.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/15/international/worldspecial/15CND-SYRI.html?ex=1051070400&en=4c62b8c32f08e23d&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

April 15 — Secretary of State Colin Powell said today that "there is no war plan" against Syria... Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld confirmed, meanwhile, that United States-led forces in Iraq had shut off a pipeline carrying oil to Syria.

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http://www.veryveryhappy.blogspot.com/#92569194

I think I'm going to start a pool to see how long it takes for at least 40% of the US population to believe that most of the 9/11 hijackers were Syrian. Come on, July 13-19!

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http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=32355

According to a declassified state department document, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld had visited Iraq in 1983 as a special envoy to seek president Saddam Hussein’s sanction for the San Fransisco-based Bechtel Corporation to build an Iraq-Jordan pipeline. But Saddam outrightly rejected the American proposal... During his meeting with Saddam and the then foreign minister Tariq Aziz, Rumsfeld had realised that Iraq was concerned about the proximity to Israel as the pipeline would enter the Gulf of Aqaba,” according to the article. The Iraqis were afraid the Israelis might destroy the pipeline.

Rumsfeld said he could understand that there would need to be some sort of arrangement... The US then planned to raise the issue with Israel at an appropriate time. It was known by the fall of 1983 that Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran. Even that did not prevent the US from pursuing improved relations with Saddam, or curb the enthusiasm for the Aqaba pipeline, says the article. [and so on]

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grind his bones to make my bread?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=578&ncid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20030413/ts_nm/iraq_saddam_dna_dc

AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - Iraq war commander Gen. Tommy Franks said on Sunday that U.S.-led forces had DNA of Saddam Hussein and would use it to check whether attempts to kill him had succeeded.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/5633287.htm

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is seeking new powers that would greatly expand his office's control over both military personnel and civilian employees. Term limits for the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be eliminated and mandatory retirement ages for top generals and admirals would be raised under the 205-page proposal sent to Congress late last week. Other rule changes would make it easier for the Defense Department to create civilian positions for functions now being carried out by military personnel... Part of the plan would eliminate dozens of reports required by Congress.

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/5620585.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Marines got a visit from their top general in the region Saturday... Lt. Gen. James T. Conway... Conway praised the battalion for its work, but some Marines sighed and rolled their eyes after he prepared them for a possibly indefinite stay... In his speech, Conway said the 20,000 Marines who were in Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division would be pulled out gradually, but he couldn't say when that would start. "There are no Marines left back home to replace you... It's going to be tough, because there are going to be [Iraqi] guys hidden in the woodwork who are going to come get you," Conway said.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0413war-charity13.html

There are roughly 1,500 members of the Arizona Army National Guard and Air National Guard who have been called to active duty... Reservists at the corporal or specialist level with four years of service receive... only $1,665 a month on active duty. That's slightly less than $20,000 a year.

...A recent survey of military families by the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter offers a glimpse into the problem. Of the 58 individuals surveyed, 41 percent said they expected their household income to drop when a service member was deployed... Linda Sherwood, casework specialist with the local Red Cross [says,] "They are called to duty... but the house payment is still there, the credit card bills are still there."

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=focusIraqNews&storyID=2559476

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Staff Sergeant Nathan Braswell hopes a flag he found in a captured Iraqi base will earn him a tidy sum... "It's very large. It's in great condition," said Braswell, 24, who picked up the Iraqi national colors on the eastern outskirts of the city. "I'm going to put the flag on eBay," he said... Strictly speaking, Marines are banned from taking war trophies... but collecting the keepsakes of war is not everyone's idea of fun. "I'm not really into that," said a Marine who rides an "Amtrack" armored amphibious vehicle. "My war trophy is getting home and sitting on my couch."

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/2947409.stm

[Brit] Ian Seymour, 28, an operator mechanic (communications) second class, was killed in a helicopter crash in Kuwait at the beginning of the conflict. His wife Lianne, 27, from Poole, Dorset, was devastated when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) asked her to pay back his salary for the rest of the month and to move out... The MoD has since said that the request for the wages was "an administrative error" ...[but] Lianne is still waiting for an official reply from the MoD.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/13/wschr13.xml

Germany is poised to abolish military conscription and reduce its army by a third in a move that it hopes will strengthen Europe's defences and reduce dependence on America after the Iraq war.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=283707&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Five of the 12th graders who signed a letter refusing to serve in the Israel Defense Forces because they oppose the occupation, will tomorrow be tried by a military court... Three of them were not allowed to state their case to the IDF's conscientious objectors' committee; the arguments that Matar and Bahat made to the committee were rejected. All five have already served prison terms after being sentenced by disciplinary panels.

...In the last year, 21 young men were incarcerated because of refusal to join the IDF "because of the occupation and the operations being carried out in the territories." Around 200 reserve soldiers were also detained for similar reasons. Currently, five reservists and 14 refuseniks are serving prison sentences.

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http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14832

A federal jury in Denver, Colorado provided some of the first conclusive evidence last week that anti-government protesters are facing increasing danger from John Ashcroft... On Monday, the jury convicted three Roman Catholic nuns -- Sister Carol Gilbert, 55, of Baltimore; Sister Ardeth Platte, 66, of Saginaw, Mich.; and Sister Jackie Marie Hudson, 68, of Bremerton, Wash. -- of "obstructing national defense" and of damaging government property in an anti-nuclear protest last October 6. The obstruction conviction could net the women 30 years in federal prison; sentencing is scheduled for July 25.

So how, exactly, did these three unimposing women manage to derail the entire trillion-dollar American military machine? By traveling to a remote Minuteman III nuclear missile silo in Weld County, Colorado; cutting through two gate chains and an unguarded fence; symbolically tapping hammers on the rusted railroad tracks used to transport the missile; spray-painting six crosses on the concrete silo dome in their own blood; and then singing and praying while they waited an hour for military riflemen to arrive, crashing through the fence in their humvee to arrest the non-resisting nuns.

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http://www.modbee.com/24hour/global/story/852336p-5973736c.html

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II celebrated Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of young people, urging "brotherly solidarity" with their peers suffering during the conflicts in Iraq... The Mass [was] attended by a crowd of at least 30,000 people.

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http://www.mpac.org/home_article_display.aspx?ITEM=503

Religous members within the Department of Defense are protesting the Pentagon Chaplain's group sponsorship of an appearance by Franklin Graham at a Good Friday Prayer service scheduled for April 18th. Graham, a Christian fundamentalist, has repeatedly insulted Islam, calling it a "wicked religion." He is also planning to evangelize Iraqis under the cover of bringing humanitarian aid into the country while Iraq is suffering from lack of food and water.

... The following is an excerpt of a letter from members of the Pentagon Chaplain's group: "We are deeply dismayed and disappointed that the Pentagon Chaplain's Office has invited Mr. Franklin Graham... The Pentagon Chaplain's Office is sending a message that it and the Department of Defense condone public displays of attitudes and thoughts that contradict not only Department of Defense regulations but also the American ideal of religious tolerance."

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you'll dance to anything

http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:gFaongxDWcEC:news.christiansunite.com/religion/religion01323.shtml+%22franklin+graham%22+wicked&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Evangelist Franklin Graham is not backing away from his statements aired on a national news program that Islam is "wicked, violent and not of the same god." Graham initially made the remarks in an interview at the October dedication of a chapel in Wilkesboro, N.C.; the remarks were broadcast by NBC News Nov. 16 [2002]. "I don't believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion," Graham said. "When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are non-Muslim."

...Asked by NBC News to clarify his statement, Graham stood his ground. "It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn't Lutherans," Graham told NBC. "It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith."

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030415/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_us_mosul&cid=1514&ncid=1473

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 10 people were shot dead and scores wounded in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, a hospital doctor said, with witnesses claiming US troops had opened fire on a crowd after it turned against an American-installed local governor. Those charges were denied by a US military spokesman here.

..."We were at the market place near the government building, where Juburi was making a speech," said [witness] Marwan Mohammed, 50. "He said everything would be restored, water, electricity, and that democracy was the Americans. As for the Americans, they were going through the crowd with their flag. They placed themselves between the civilians and the building. The people moved toward the government building, the children threw stones, the Americans started firing. Then they prevented the people from recovering the bodies," he told AFP.

At the hospital, where angry relatives of the dead and wounded voiced hatred of Americans and Westerners, a doctor gave a similar account... "The wounded said Juburi asked the Americans to fire," he said. Ayad Hassun, 37, another witness, said the trouble broke out after the crowd interrupted Juburi's speech with cries of, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet."

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http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1048313732457&p=1031119383196

Thousands of Arabs [are being] expelled from their homes [near Kirkuk] by armed Kurds — among the United States' most exuberant allies in this war — and ordered to move away within three days... leaving entire hamlets nearly abandoned and crowding some families into wheat fields that have become hastily erected camps... The intimidation appears widespread.

..."The mistakes of Saddam, we are repeating them," said Sheik Abdul Karim Hajji, a member of parliament in the Kurdish autonomous zone who has been trying to ease relations among ethnic groups in and around Kirkuk. "We are against, absolutely against, what has happened." Yet one local official for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or P.U.K., the dominant armed Kurdish party near Kirkuk, suggested that a policy of expelling Arabs had the approval of the United States. The official... said the same people who had defeated the Iraqi Army had ordered Arabs to relocate. It is a message radically different from the one Washington had been hoping would reach Arab ears.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,936327,00.html

An Israeli army investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, has concluded that its forces were not to blame for her death. It accused Corrie and other members of the International Solidarity Movement of "illegal, irresponsible and dangerous" behaviour.

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http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1347525,00.html

Jerusalem - Israel's Supreme Court has given the army the green light to use controversial flechette tanks shells which spray thousands of darts over hundreds of metres, ripping apart anyone in the killing zone... According to Jane's Defence Weekly, the British military analysis journal, Israel uses flechette shells acquired from the United States in the 1970s, which fire 5 000 darts in in a cone-shaped pattern 300m long and about 94m wide.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2564479,00.html

Israel's nuclear weapons program is thought to include about 200 warheads deployed on ballistic missiles and aircraft, [Jon B. Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Non-Proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace] said. In 2000, Israel placed nuclear-tipped missiles on three submarines, pushing its capabilities beyond those of declared nuclear states India and Pakistan... Israel is believed to store nuclear missiles on mobile launchers in caves, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Israel is also believed to stock chemical and biological weapons, according to the Carnegie Endowment and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which track such issues.

...Egypt, another leading U.S. ally, is believed to harbor chemical weapons - including deadly sarin and VX agents - along with, perhaps, an offensive bioweapons capability, according to the Monterey Institute. India and Pakistan have publicly tested nuclear weapons. They are also suspected to be engaged in chemical and biological weapons research, according to Carnegie and Monterey. Taiwan, another staunch U.S. ally, probably maintains a chemical weapons program and may have a biological research program, according to Monterey. Saudi Arabia has bought nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles from China, though the Saudis are not believed to have unconventional warheads to put in them, Wolfsthal said.

...Other countries with current chemical and biological weapons stocks or research programs include Russia, China, Libya and Sudan, according to the Carnegie Endowment. The United States and Britain, both among the world's seven declared nuclear powers, developed their own chemical and biological weapons in the past. Britain has destroyed all such stocks...The United States still develops small amounts of weapons-grade chemical and biological toxins in order to defend against them, [Amy Smithson, a chemical and biological weapons researcher with the Henry L. Stimson Center, a national security think tank in Washington] said.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/04/02/financial1530EST0199.DTL

Sales of military toys are getting a boost from the U.S.-led war in Iraq... Plush hamsters dressed in military garb from all four branches of the U.S. armed forces, made by Gemmy Industries, have also been selling rapidly, according to a spot check of stores... Military-themed computer games also have seen a spike in demand... Kmart Corp. spokeswoman Abigail Jacobs said Easter baskets stuffed with toy military soldiers are "doing better in some regions than others."...Hasbro Inc., maker of the G.I. Joes, said sales of the military soldier increased 46 percent last year from 2001, but company officials declined to comment on recent results.

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=2554130

Do you know what your underwear is saying about you? Tiny wireless transmitters promise to link tires, razors and other everyday items to the Internet, creating a world where money actually talks and the walls really do have ears. Marketing experts say the new technology, known as radio-frequency identification, or RFID, could revolutionize the retail industry as stores personalize service and manage inventory more efficiently... At the sleek new Prada store in New York's tony SoHo neighborhood, sensors in dressing-room walls can determine which clothes a customer is trying on and show whether they are available in other colors, sizes or fabrics.

...Mass-market companies like Procter & Gamble and Nokia also plan to use RFID on consumer products... replacing the utilitarian bar code with a system that assigns a unique 96-digit number to each individual bar of soap or toothbrush and broadcasts it within a three-foot radius. The system could also make it possible for retailers to link product data -- where it was made and how much it cost -- with a list of a customer's other purchases.

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http://www.libertythink.com/