"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat, (1801-1850) French economist, statesman, and author

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"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza until our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning."
http://october2011.org/welcome

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Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan
Total Cost of Wars Since 2001
$1,243,378,155,722
http://www.costofwar.com/

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The NTC's western backers, led by France, Britain and the US, want to continue Nato's legal mandate to conduct military operations in Libya laid down in UN resolution 1973.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28999.htm

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"Apparently killing people and destroying property on behalf of one side in a civil war does not rise to the level of war for the purposes of the Obama administration"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29003.htm

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The Holy Triumvirate - The United States, NATO and the European Union - can do whatever it wants in the world, to whomever it wants, for as long as it wants, and call it whatever it wants, like "humanitarian".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29006.htm

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The repackaging of NATO's reckless intervention as a clever war for liberty would make Orwell's Ministry of Truth beam with pride.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29004.htm

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Al Jazeera uncovers evidence that influential Americans tried to help the now-deposed Libyan leader cling to power.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29008.htm

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Governments acting in ways they know will increase terrorism.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29000.htm

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The rancid reality of a free and un-convicted Dick Cheney appearing in the public eye once again.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29001.htm

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The real master criminals, such as Dick Cheney, who, if tried for his actions at Nuremberg, would most definitely have been executed as a war criminal, run free.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29005.htm

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Here is an important question: What single organization is responsible for more terror plots in the USA than any other?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29007.htm

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Many Americans might want to pause to recognize - or unlearn - those reactions and overreactions to 9/11 that have harmed our country.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29002.htm

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The United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) was determined to pin the crime either on Syria or its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and refused to pursue the Al-Qaeda angle.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28998.htm

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Yemeni officials say up to 30 "suspects" dead following a drone attack in the southern Abyan province.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/09/201191125737612197.html

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Overnight clashes outside a militant-controlled city in volatile south Yemen killed three soldiers and six militants, a security official said on Wednesday.
http://bit.ly/r4dp5X

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 "Let there be a long fight and let Libya be engulfed in flames." He said the "balance of power is now leveled as all tribes are now armed".
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/09/201191141151339449.html

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NATO's war in Libya, now appears likely to end with a bloodbath that will claim the lives of many civilians, albeit pro-Gaddafi civilians, not the earlier threatened anti-Gaddafi civilians.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11878/in_libya_a_bloodbath_looms/

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Poor black migrant workers are cowering in camps as rebels hunt down Gaddafi's 'mercenaries'
http://ind.pn/oKYlVR

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The diplomat's son said his father fled the country due to alleged political persecution launched by Libyan rebels.
http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/08/31/venezuelan-ambassador-to-libya-flees-tripoli.shtml

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A US senator called on America on Wednesday to withhold all aid to the new Libyan government unless it allowed the Lockerbie bomber to be returned to jail.
http://tgr.ph/n0uvqr

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The Kremlin opposed NATO's air war and called for negotiations between the rebels and Qaddafi. But its concern about keeping billion-dollar contracts with Libya seems to have caused the switch.
http://bit.ly/r0wwDO

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A car bombing rattled Iraq's capital city of Baghdad late on Wednesday, killing three civilians and injuring 20 others, an Interior Ministry source said.
http://en.trend.az/regions/met/arabicr/1924849.html

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A US diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that US troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a five-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence
http://bit.ly/q9vqLK

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Leader of the Sadrist movement in Iraq, Moqtada al-Sadr, has called on the Iraqi "resistance" to respond to the temporary closure of Baghdad airspace to civilian air traffic on Tuesday by US forces.
http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=26426

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As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates
http://huff.to/pGASSQ

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While Nato insists the insurgents are on the defensive and progress is being achieved, the reality is that Afghanistan stands on the edge of collapse.
http://mondediplo.com/blogs/afghanistan-in-the-hands-of-the-taliban

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Beatings, deprivation of food and sleep, and cultural shocks were part of the daily routine for Ghairat Bahir during six years spent in US detention centres in Afghanistan.
http://bit.ly/q64i9d

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 Court documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/31/us-firms-torture-flights-rendition

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Indian forces fired across the de facto border in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir early on Wednesday, killing three Pakistani soldiers, the Pakistani army said on Thursday.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/01/three-soldiers-killed-in-indian-border-firing.html

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Security forces killed at least two people as they moved into central and northwest Syria on Thursday, activists said, urging fresh anti-regime protests under the banner of "death rather than humiliation".
http://bit.ly/nepVJp

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The European Union will formally adopt a ban on Syrian oil imports Friday, but the embargo will take effect on November 15 for existing contracts after Italy insisted on a delay, according to diplomats.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/eu-adopt-syria-oil-embargo-friday-145215615.html

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If it succeeds in setting itself up for leadership in Syria, the kingdom could become a revived, major player on the regional scene, and Washington could rejoice for finally having an ally that is capable of confronting Iran.
http://www.aina.org/news/2011083118589.htm

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Lebanon on Wednesday backed Syria in rejecting an Arab League statement demanding an end to the bloodshed in the country.
http://bit.ly/rlNA06

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Sygmunt Bauman says Israel 'terrified of peace' and 'taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts,' in interview with Polish weekly 'Politika.'
http://bit.ly/p88g96

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Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says UN-authored Palmer report on the 2010 incident must be published by September 2 as scheduled, and threatens sanctions if Israel doesn't apologize beforehand.
http://bit.ly/pF2kAr

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At least fifteen people have been killed and several others wounded after a gunfight broke out between Somali government forces in southern Mogadishu, Press TV reports.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201108310929.html

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A teenage boy has been killed after being hit by a tear-gas canister fired by security forces in Bahrain while attempting to forcefully disperse a small gathering of anti-government protesters, according to rights activists.
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1704267&SM=1

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A Guardian journalist has negligently disclosed top secret WikiLeaks' decryption passwords to hundreds of thousands of unredacted unpublished US diplomatic cables.
http://www.wikileaks.org/Guardian-journalist-negligently.html

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Although a broad majority of Mexicans still oppose US troop support to maintain law and order in Mexico, a new survey indicates a growing percentage of the Mexican public support US assistance.
http://bit.ly/nFOyyX

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U.S. federal agents allegedly allowed the Sinaloa drug cartel to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to court documents filed in a U.S. federal court.
http://bit.ly/nnwwqF

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The United States shares responsibility for the thousands of people dead, injured and displaced in the five-year drug war that Mexican President Felipe Calderon has launched against the drug cartels. But we seem to ignore the connection between the high demand for illegal drugs and the violence associated with drug trafficking
http://bit.ly/rrxBGr

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In case you missed it:

As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28072.htm

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Roubini Sees 60% Chance Of A Recession In 2012, China And Brazil Also At Risk:

"We've reached a stall speed in the economy, not just in the U.S., but in the euro zone and the U.K. We see probably a 60 percent probability of recession next year, and, unfortunately, we're running out of policy tools. ... and sovereigns cannot bail out their own distressed banks because they are distressed themselves"
http://read.bi/qy6VlB

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"Hardest Christmas in Retailer Lives" Coming Up
http://bit.ly/qpf9NP

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Don't look know but Canada just confirmed the first signal of a recession, after its GDP printed negative (on expectations of an unchanged number) for the first time since Q2 2009, due to a drop in exports and oil output
http://bit.ly/opS5c8

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The British Chambers of Commerce cut its economic growth forecast today as the U.S. recovery slows, Europe's debt crisis escalates and Britain's government implements the biggest fiscal squeeze since World War II.
http://bloom.bg/pshszJ

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Banks are keeping nearly all REOs off the market. Can these servicing banks continue to hold these repossessed homes off the market indefinitely? I doubt it. When the seriously delinquent properties begin to be repossessed in larger numbers and the banks start to work off their REO inventory, prices will be devastated.
http://www.businessinsider.com/no-housing-bottom-in-sight-2011-9

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Cuts to welfare support could lead to middle class homelessness, a housing charity has claimed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/08/31/danger-of-middle-class-ho_n_943144.html

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Not all states have experienced the same kind of economic pain since the Great Recession began.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152187/the_10_states_with_the_best_economies_in_america

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According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July-that's just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-north-dakota-miracle-not-all-about-oil

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In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830

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With the passage of each day, the Mujahideen become better familiar with the enemy tactics; they are gaining access to hardware which is instrumental in causing greater losses to the enemy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28997.htm

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Libya faces a number of nightmare scenarios, from a new civil war between rival factions to the rise of al Qaeda-affiliated Islamists, should a power vacuum plunge the country into a new phase of lawlessness and chaos.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28996.htm

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There should be a restructuring of household and personal debts "including",-- "debt forgiveness for low-income Americans.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28995.htm

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Libya's interim leadership has rejected the idea of deploying any kind of international military force, the UN envoy to the country has said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14726292

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Yeah right!
Libya's "new rulers" set out steps to elections:

The plan goes into effect with a "declaration of liberation" which the NTC has not defined precisely, though NTC chairman Abdel Mustafa Jalil told reporters the conditions for such a declaration included the capture or death of Muammar Gaddafi.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/31/libya-constitution-idUSL5E7JV2CF20110831

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The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States recruited over 1,500 men from Mazar-e-Sharif for fighting against the Qaddafi forces in Libya.
http://bit.ly/oNGLTX

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The two sides also said they are committed to "doing all that is necessary to restart operations on the Greenstream pipeline, bringing gas from the Libyan coast to Italy."
http://www.ogj.com/articles/2011/08/eni-libyas-national-transitional-council-sign-agreement.html

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At the end of this column, you will know what AFRICOM is, its activities and why it is a security threat.
http://bit.ly/qTd7Fp

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War criminal :
Obama hails '9/11 generation' of US vets :

"When the decision was made to go into Iraq, our troops raced across deserts and removed a dictator in less than a month," Mr Obama said, referring to a conflict which he vigorously opposed.
http://bit.ly/ohuk0E

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Powell's chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, told ABC News Cheney "was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration" and "fears being tried as a war criminal."
http://bit.ly/nzZeFo

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Brown shirts optional: IDF training Israeli settlers ahead of 'mass disorder' expected in September:

The IDF has conducted detailed work to determine a "red line" for each settlement in the West Bank, which will determine when soldiers will be ordered to shoot at the feet of Palestinian protesters if the line is crossed
http://bit.ly/n266tu

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 THE US and Australia schemed unsuccessfully in 2005 to block Mohamed ElBaradei's election to a third term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a newly leaked US diplomatic cable shows.
http://bit.ly/osjxw0

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"American strength is the only guarantee of liberty," he said. "American strength turned the Cuban missiles around, American strength caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, American strength yanked Saddam out of his spider hole."
http://bit.ly/pGzrRU

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Tom Feeley