Obama threatens Iran with 'significant sanctions' 10 Feb 2010

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Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
10 Feb 2010
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Obama threatens Iran with 'significant sanctions' 10 Feb 2010 US President Barack Obama said the United States is developing a "significant regime of sanctions" against Iran, shortly after Tehran announced its decision to start enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent. Obama stated that Iran appears to have spurned his offer of engagement. He also accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear program that would lead to nuclear weapons. 

U.S., allies moving quickly on sanctions against Iran, Obama says 09 Feb 2010 President Obama said Tuesday that the United States and its allies are moving quickly to develop "a significant regime of sanctions" against Iran over its nuclear program, which he described as being headed toward eventually producing nuclear weapons. In a news briefing at the White House, Obama said he drew that conclusion from Iran's refusal so far to accept a proposed deal in which it would swap the bulk of its low-enriched uranium for higher-grade uranium fuel that it says is urgently needed for a medical research reactor in Tehran. 

Brazil opposes calls to impose more sanctions on Iran 10 Feb 2010 Brazil has warned against imposing a new round of UN sanctions on Iran, saying that the dispute over Iran's nuclear program should be resolved through peaceful means. "We don't want Iran to have nuclear arms, let there be no doubt about that. They, like other countries, have the right to a peaceful (nuclear power) program," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters in Brasilia on Tuesday. 

Secret papers could contradict Iraq evidence: Chilcot 10 Feb 2010 Tens of thousands of secret documents could contradict evidence given by members of the Blair government to the inquiry into the Iraq war, its chairman, Sir John Chilcot, has suggested as the former prime minister lashed out at the hunt for a ''scandal'' and a ''conspiracy'' over his controversial decision to back the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sir John disclosed that the panel was examining far more documents than previously thought. 

UK: Iraq inquiry to question US officials --A spokesman for Bush has declined to comment on whether any request has been made to the former president or if he would cooperate. 09 Feb 2010 In Britain, the head of the Iraq war inquiry is to seek meetings with members of the administration of former US President [sic] George W. Bush, over the 2003 war. John Chilcot confirmed on Monday he hopes to obtain evidence from American officials, but did not say which specific individuals he wants to question. 

Jack Straw agrees to check records of secret calls to US over Iraq 09 Feb 2010 Secret telephone calls between Jack Straw and Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State in the months before the war against Iraq, became the focus yesterday of the official inquiry into Britain’s decision to join the invasion. Mr Straw, the former Foreign Secretary, said that he would check records of his conversations after it was suggested he had been told that President [sic] Bush would invade Iraq even if Saddam Hussein complied with inspectors. Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, a military historian and a member of the Iraq Inquiry panel, hinted that documents seen by the inquiry -- but not made public -- showed that Mr Bush planned to attack Iraq even if Hans Blix, the UN weapons inspector, said that Saddam was complying with United Nations resolution 1441. 

War casualties put UK hospitals under strain – ahead of fresh Afghan offensive --New beds to be opened to handle rise in UK troops injured as defence secretary warns of "real risk" of new fatalities 10 Feb 2010 Hospitals treating casualties of the war in Afghanistan are close to capacity and coming under growing pressure from the number of troops wounded by the Taliban-led insurgency, a report by parliament's independent watchdog warns today. The demands are so great that the Ministry of Defence will today announce an increase in the number of ward beds at its rehabilitation centre, at Headley Court in Surrey, from 66 to 96, the Guardian has learned. 

Warning over UK troop illnesses --It comes as the armed forces prepare for a major offensive in Helmand, southern Afghanistan. 10 Feb 2010 Defence chiefs must tackle a rise in the number of British troops in Afghanistan suffering from illness, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. The public spending watchdog also said Afghan and UK hospitals were under pressure from the large number of troops injured in Helmand province. 

Nato warns Afghans to keep 'heads down' 09 Feb 2010 Nato and Afghan officials today urged Taliban militants holding a southern town to lay down their arms and warned civilians there to "keep your heads down" as US and Afghan troops prepare their first major offensive of the US. troop surge. 

Wars sending U.S. into ruin --Obama the peace president is fighting battles his country cannot afford By Eric Margolis 05 Feb 2010 U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health. In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug -- debt. More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion... Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year... To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today. 

Israel strikes Gaza in response to Qassam rockets 10 Feb 2010 Israel Air Force jets fired missiles early Wednesday at targets in the southern Gaza Strip, responding to rockets fired from the coastal salient by Palestinian militants, Israel's military said. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman would not specify which targets were hit in the strike, shortly after midnight, nor confirm or deny eyewitness reports that an unused airport, named after late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was struck by a number of missiles. 

Israeli warplanes target Gaza airport 10 Feb 2010 Israeli warplanes have launched an overnight attack on the southern Gaza Strip, pounding an international airport in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. The air strike came Tuesday night when Israeli F-16 fighter jets targeted the Yasser Arafat International Airport in Dahaniya, Rafah. Locals said the warplanes fired five missiles into the facility, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. 

Israel charged with targeting Palestinian medical teams 04 Feb 2010 The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has charged Israel with launching hundreds of attacks against Palestinian medical teams in 2009. The aid group, also known as PRCS, said that the Israeli troops fired 15 times at ambulances in the West Bank and Gaza last year, killing one medical worker and wounding 10 more. 

Top Canadian military official charged with murder 08 Feb 2010 The commander of Canada's largest Air Force base, who once flew dignitaries around the country, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas said Monday that Col. Russell Williams, 46, was also charged in the sexual assaults of two other women. Williams was arrested Sunday in Ottawa. 

Former Minot AFB airman sentenced for child porn 09 Feb 2010 A former airman at the Minot Air Force Base has been sentenced in federal court on a child pornography charge. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland says Brian Thoman must serve more than four years in prison. Thoman had pleaded guilty to possession of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors. 

Binyam Mohamed torture case appeal court ruling due --Appeal court to rule on David Miliband's attempt to prevent disclosures relating to torture held by British security services 10 Feb 2010 The appeal court will rule today on an attempt by the foreign secretary, David Miliband, to prevent senior judges from disclosing secret information relating to torture allegations. Former Guantánamo Bay detainee prisoner Binyam Mohamed says he was tortured in Pakistan while held by the CIA, with the knowledge of the British. Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones want to disclose summaries of information held by the British security services. 

'The U.N. position is that children should not be prosecuted for war crimes.' Former boy soldier, youngest Guantanamo detainee, heads toward military tribunal 10 Feb 2010 Omar Khadr, the youngest detainee prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was 15 when he allegedly threw a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces medic in Afghanistan. Now, more than seven years later, Khadr is drawing the Obama administration into a fierce debate over the propriety of putting a child soldier on trial... But U.S. government officials said they expect to go to trial at Guantanamo Bay in July and will put Khadr before a jury of military officers on multiple war crimes charges, including murder. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has said that the Khadr prosecution is one of six detainee cases assigned to a military tribunal rather than federal court. 

W.House: Some Critics 'Serving the Goals of al Qaeda' 09 Feb 2010 In an oped in USA Today, John Brennan -- Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism -- responds to critics of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policies by saying "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." [Well, so does scheduling their next attack. See: Expect al Qaeda attack soon: CIA 04 Feb 2010 Ok, thanks for letting us know.] 

Terror laws in doubt as 'suicide bomber' is freed 10 Feb 2010 Britain's terror laws have once again been thrown into question after a Scottish student branded "a wannabe suicide bomber" was freed half way through an eight-year prison sentence. Judges yesterday quashed the main conviction of Mohammed Atif Siddique, the only Scot ever brought to trial under legislation designed to catch those who plot, inspire or even consider terrorist acts. The Court of Appeal said the 24-year-old had suffered a "miscarriage of justice" after ruling that his original trial judge misdirected the jury on what critics believe is a vaguely-worded section of the controversial 2000 Terrorism Act. The ruling is the latest in a succession of court decisions that have challenged how Britain's terror laws are framed and interpreted. 

Shah Rukh signs off sexy body-scan printouts at Heathrow 06 Feb 2010 Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan isn't intimidated by the full body-scan machines that have been recently installed at London's airports - in fact, he's been signing off printouts of his X-rays. Khan, appearing on 'Friday Night With Jonathan Ross' - one of British television's most popular weekend shows - revealed he's been turning the controversial security machines into a public relations opportunity at London's Heathrow airport. 

Feds admit wrongly tracking Wis. abortion groups 08 Feb 2010 The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a threat assessment of local pro- and anti-abortion rights activists before an expected rally last year, even though they did not pose a threat to national security. The DHS destroyed or deleted its copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence-gathering guidelines by collecting and sharing information about "protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security," according to a department memo written last year. 

Two-thirds of swine flu vaccines remain unused in NI 10 Feb 2010 The Department of Health in Northern Ireland still has half a million swine flu vaccines which remain unused. In mid-January, there were more than 60% of the vaccines left. The health minister had estimated he would need £61m to combat the virus in NI. 

Sarah Palin ridiculed by critics after turning her hand to crib notes 10 Feb 2010 Sarah Palin is facing fresh doubts about her readiness for high office after being caught reading crib notes scrawled on her hand to prompt her on the core principles of conservatism. Video footage showed Mrs Palin glancing down at the palm of her left hand -- on which the words "energy", "budget cuts", "tax" and "lift American spirits" had been written in ink -- during a question-and-answer session at the grassroots Tea Party convention last week. The word "budget" had been crossed out. 

The "Tea Party" movement in the US: A right-wing media creation By David Walsh 09 Feb 2010 The "Tea Party" movement, which held a convention last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, is largely a media concoction, aimed at shifting official American political life even further to the right. The convention gathered "nearly 600 conservative activists," according to ABC News, a weak showing considering the US media has been playing up this "grassroots movement" for the past 12 months. The press coverage of the Tea Party movement begins from a thoroughly false premise, that wide layers of the American population oppose the Obama administration from the right, outraged over "socialism" and "big government" and the sinister possibility of "universal health care." The Tea Party business took shape in a typically sordid and fraudulent manner. One year ago, CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli let loose with a rant from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade--cheered on by traders--against the Obama administration’s meager mortgage reform, denouncing attempts "to subsidize the losers’ mortgages … How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?" Far from a spontaneous outburst, Santelli's appeal for a "tea party" protest was a stage-managed event, prepared well in advance and backed by wealthy, extreme right-wing forces. [To clarify: The original (Ron Paul) Tea Party movement needs to be distinguished from this 'other' Tea Party movement, backed by corporaterrorists and nutjobs (i.e., Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck). --LRP] 

After the defeat in Massachusetts, Democrats lurch to the right By Patrick Martin 08 Feb 2010 The three weeks since the special election to the US Senate in Massachusetts have seen a deepening political crisis of the Democratic Party. The party which controls the White House and has huge majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives has bowed and scraped before the minority Republican Party, which was repudiated by the electorate in the 2008 election. On January 29, President Obama, as part of his "outreach" to the Republicans, met with the entire House Republican caucus--whose members include several co-thinkers of the "birthers," the ultra-right elements who claim Obama is of foreign birth and hence occupies the White House illegitimately. Obama announced later that he would begin to hold regular meetings with the House and Senate Republican leaders (along with their Democratic counterparts), something rarely done by President [sic] George W. Bush when the Democrats were in the minority. 

Bank executives get multimillion-dollar bonuses By Andre Damon 09 Feb 2010 Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, the largest Wall Street banks, announced multi-million-dollar year-end payouts for their chief executives on Friday. Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, received a $9 million bonus, while Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, received $16 million. Blankfein and Dimon received their bonus payments in stock instead of cash. Both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan posted record-breaking profits in 2009, following unprecedented government interventions that injected $35 billion directly into the banks, and provided tens of billions in additional assistance. 

Criminal probe is launched in Conn. plant blast 08 Feb 2010 Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction, saying they couldn't rule out negligence. The powerful explosion blew apart large swaths of the nearly completed 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant as workers for the construction company, O&G Industries Inc., were purging a gas line Sunday morning.

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Previous lead stories: Unlawful anti-terror powers planned for use during 2012 Olympics 08 Feb 2010 Police are planning to use an anti-terror law deemed unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights across the country during the London Olympics, The Times has learnt. Senior officers are considering using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at every Underground and railway station nationwide. The powers would enable police to stop and search members of the public without any suspicion that they were involved in terrorism. The Times understands that this would be the first time that the powers would have been used across such a wide area. Police said that Section 44, which must be granted by the Home Secretary for a designated area, would be used only in the event of an escalated terror threat. 

'Hold inquiry into Army abuse in Iraq' --Judge calls for single investigation to cover 46 claims by civilians 08 Feb 2010 Ministers have been told by a senior judge to consider opening an independent inquiry into all allegations of abuse made by Iraqi civilians against the British Army. The move could lead to the biggest investigation into military malpractice ever heard in this country... The Government was served with the first claim of abuse brought by an Iraqi woman. Samahir Abbas Hashim, 32, six months pregnant at the time of the alleged assault, claims she was so badly beaten by soldiers that she lost her baby. 

Tony Blair says the quest for a 'conspiracy' is behind Iraq Inquiry 08 Feb 2010 Tony Blair has dismissed the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war as part of Britain’s obsession with conspiracy and scandal. Speaking for the first time since his controversial appearance as a witness, the former Prime Minister said people should accept that it is possible to have different opinions on the legitimacy of the invasion without any underlying deceit. Mr Blair said in an interview on American television: "There’s always got to be a scandal... there’s got to be some conspiracy behind it." 

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CLG Managing Editor: Lori Price. Copyright © 2010, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. 
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