let us see what love can do

Exclusive: DEBKA http://www.debka.com
April 15, 2008, 12:36 PM (GMT+02:00)
The 12th Space Warning Squadron, Greenland

Israel requested the hook-up to the BMEWS for early warning to defend itself against Iranian missile attack. Tuesday, April 15, Iran’s deputy C-in-C Mohammad Reza Ashtiani threatened to eliminate Israel from “the scene of the universe” if it launches a military attack on the Islamic state.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report the system operates from three global centers – the US Thule Air Base in Greenland, where the 12th Space Warning Squadron is located; the Clear Air Force Station in Alaska and the British RAF long-range radar station at Fylingdales, Yorkshire, in England.

This is the third time Israel has been connected to the BMEWS. The first was in 1991 before the first Gulf War and the second in 2003 before the US invasion of Iraq. Then, Israel feared Iraqi missile attack, which indeed materialized in 1991. Now, US military sources interpret the request as signifying Israel’s sense of the need to prepare for an Iranian missile attack in the not-too-distant future.

If the U.S. is ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military building 'permanent' bases?

Primary Source: GlobalSecurity.org

Initially, the US established more than a hundred bases of different sizes in Iraq. By the end of 2003, the Pentagon had developed as many as fourteen bases beyond the level of temporary encampment. According to the Iraq Study Group, at the end of 2006 there were still 55 US bases in the country and Pentagon requests for funding in the last year have included money for building giant mess halls – capable of feeding 5000 people – new airfields, and other facilities that suggest the U.S. isn’t planning to leave Iraq anytime soon. Below are some of the key facilities and mega-bases.

The Costs Are Many

4,000 US Military Killed(1a)

29,320 US Military wounded – direct hostilities(1b)
62,650 US Military wounded – indirect, accident, disease(1b)
81,174 to 88,585(2a) to 1,185,800(2b) Iraqis killed
2.3 million Iraqi internally displaced persons(3)
2,012,000 to 2,467,000 Iraqi refugees(3)
1,810 Iraqi refugees admitted to US (fiscal year 06-07)(3)

1 trillion dollars for the first 4 years of the war(4)
3 trillion dollars estimated for the long term costs including taking care
of wounded veterans and interest on debt incurred to borrow money
to pay for the war(4)
$720 million per day = $500,000 per minute(4)
More than $4 billion spent in 2007 for recruiting into the military(5)
Other ways to spend $720 million (a day’s cost of the war) (4) :
16,525 people could get health insurance for one year
423,529 children could get health insurance for one year
95,364 kids could have a year in a Head Start program
1,153,846 kids could get free lunches for a year
34,904 people could go to a state college for 4 years
12,478 teachers could be paid for one year
84 new elementary schools could be built
6,482 new homes could be built
1,274,336 homes could have renewable energy for one year

(1a) Department of Defense has officially confirmed 3,992; 8 more remain to be confirmed.
(1b) Department of Defense, 3/1/08 (Note that the DoD has an unusual way of distinguishing between “hostile” and other types of injuries.)
(1a and b from www.icasualties.org on 3/24/08)
(2a) estimate (1/1/08) given at iraqbodycount.org
(2b) estimate (1/1/08) given at justforeignpolicy.org
(3) UN High Commission on Refugees, 11/21/07 (in Quaker Action Winter 2008, published by the American Friends Service Committee)
(4) For basis of estimates and calculations, see: www.afsc.org/cost/facts-and-figures.htm.
See also 2 minute video “One Day in the Iraq War” at www.afsc.org/cost
(5) www.nationalpriorities.org/charts/Spending-on-Military-Recruiting-2.htm includes advertising, maintaining recruiting stations, pay & benefits for more than 22,000 recruiters, and enlistment bonuses.

US Military Option on Iran Is Back on the Table

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

March 19, 2008, 2:23 PM (GMT+02:00)
Cheney with US troops at Balad air base, Iraq

Cheney with US troops at Balad air base, Iraq

“Iran has got to be very high on that list,” said a senior aide ahead of the talks US Vice President Dick Cheney will hold during his 10-day tour of the Middle East and Turkey, which began Monday, March 17 in Iraq.

Singling out Oman, the aide noted that the US and Oman are co-guardians of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. “The Omanis, like a lot of other people,” he said “are concerned by the escalating tensions between the rest of the world community and Iran and by some of Iran’s activities, particularly in the nuclear field, but outside its borders as well.”

According to DEBKAfile, the official was referring to Tehran’s meddling in Iraq, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Our military, Washington and Gulf sources report that US Vice President Dick Cheney is again talking about possible US military action to shut down Iran’s covert nuclear program.

Cheney stopped over in Oman Wednesday, Wed. March 19, after two days in Iraq. He will travel next to Saudi Arabia, is due in Jerusalem next Saturday and will also visit Ramallah and Turkey.

Our sources report exclusively that his talks are focusing on two aspects of the Iranian nuclear threat:

1. The Bush administration’s decision to distance itself from the National Intelligence Estimate released last December. Its conclusion that Iran’s nuclear arms program was shelved in 2003, which rendered America’s military option superfluous, is now deemed a mistake.

2. The administration now buys British, German, French and Israeli intelligence estimates that Iran is indeed pressing forward with programs for building nuclear weapons, warheads and ballistic missiles for their delivery.

La casa de la paz
CARLOS FRESNEDA desde Crawford (Texas)
18 de marzo.- Hay una casa allá en Crawford que nada tiene que ver con el rancho. Una casa modesta y blanca, al otro lado de las vías del tren, con una Estatua de la Libertad en el jardín y una bandera de la paz colgada del porche. Con las puertas siempre abiertas a todos los que llegan al corazón de Texas para pedirle al presidente Bush que traiga a las tropas de vuelta y ponga fin a la ocupación de Irak.

This April will mark five years since the inception of the Crawford Texas Peace House. We officially opened our doors on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003. However, Easter falls on March 23, this year, and many of our friends will be in town, so we will take that occasion to give thanks to the Creator, for our many volunteers and for the opportunity to be a witness for peace and justice in Crawford, Texas.

This week also marks the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War. Let us use this occasion for remembrance, remorse, repentance.

Denied Entry
By Starhawk

Today is March 16. Five years ago, I was in a small village in the
Occupied Territories of the West Bank of Palestine with a group of
volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, which supports
nonviolent resistance against the Occupation. We had gone because the
villagers were being menaced by tanks from the Israeli military, and
wanted witnesses, but by the time we arrived, the tanks had gone. Instead
we wandered through the olive groves, studded with pink cyclamen and

Yesterday, two protesters won the reversal of criminal convictions relating to their activities during a peaceful protest of the Iraq war at Camp Casey I, near the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The protesters, Austin psychologist Dr. Em Hardy and retired attorney and Navy veteran Hiram Myers of Oklahoma, were arrested on April 14, 2006 after they erected the tent between fences on county roads to draw attention to the Iraq war.

“This is a victory for our clients and for the First Amendment,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas. “We are delighted to see justice done in this case.”

Hardy and Myers were arrested for “obstruction of a roadway,” even though the evidence clearly showed, and the appeals court agreed, there was no obstruction whatsoever. The court noted that the “remote possibility” of obstruction is not an adequate basis for arrest.

“The First Amendment means nothing if it does not protect the right to peacefully assemble and protest the actions of the government, whatever one’s viewpoint,” said longtime ACLU cooperating attorney David Broiles, who represented Myers and Hardy pro bono. “Freedom itself is at stake when the government silences those who disagree with its actions.”

“I’m delighted that the criminal conviction I received solely for exercising my First Amendment right to protest has been overturned. I am proud to be a part of a ruling that established a fair interpretation of a statute that could have been used against the constitutional rights of protesters in the future, “stated Hardy.

“The outcome of this case demonstrates that the First Amendment is still alive and well in Crawford, Texas, despite the government’s best efforts to silence us.” Myers agreed.

For more information on the ACLU of Texas, go to www.aclutx.org.

Published on Thursday, January 24, 2008 by The Baltimore Sun
End The Occupation - and Get Justice For Its Victims
by Bassam Aramin
This month, President Bush visited the Israeli-occupied West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah and declared that the occupation must end. These were no doubt welcome words to Palestinians and Israelis alike. They provide hope for peace; for without occupation, peace is truly possible.

Unfortunately, for many, including my 10-year-old daughter Abir, it is too late.