Raja G Mujtaba: Putin Says "Prepare for Armageddon"!

Armageddon, is the site of the battle against the anti-Christ, the site of a battle during the "end times", variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location. The term is also used in a generic sense to refer to any end-of-the-world scenario. According to some Muslim and Christian interpretations, the Messiah will return to earth and defeat the "Antichrist", Satan the Devil, in the battle of Armageddon. According to the Muslim belief, it would be Imam Mehdi who would precede Prophet Jesus, who would fight the one eyed beast called Dajjal (Anti Christ). Then, Satan will be put into the "bottomless pit" or abyss for 1,000 years, known as the Millennial Age. After being released from the abyss, Satan will gather Gog and Magog (peoples of two specific nations) from the four corners of the earth. They will encamp surrounding the "holy ones" and the "beloved city". Fire will come down from God, out of heaven, and devour Gog and Magog after the Millenium. According to the Muslim belief, the forces to battle the one-eyed beast would rise from the arena of Khurasan that comprises a portion of Iran, Pakistan and part of Central Asia. If the anti-Christ forces have assembled in Afghanistan, its not a coincidence but well thought out Zionist strategy to take on Pakistan, the nuclear power of the Muslim world so it is free to advance other Muslim territories without any fear.

Chris Irvine: Did Colonel Gaddafi die From a Bullet Wound in CROSSFIRE?

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi did NOT die while fighting, but was murdered in cold blood after being captured during a NATO airstrike. Suspicions have been raised that he was executed, as a video, filmed on a mobile phone and posted on "You Tube" within hours of his death, showed him badly injured but able to stand up. On Thursday, he was finally cornered in a drain in Sirte, a gold- plated pistol in his hand, pleading "don't shoot, don't shoot" in vain for his life. "I am going to read to you a report by the forensic doctor who examined Gaddafi," Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's interim minister, told a news conference in Tripoli. "It said: Gaddafi was taken out of a sewage pipe, and did not show any resistance. When we started moving him, he was hit by a bullet in his right arm and when they put him in a truck he did not have any other injuries," Jibril said. "When the car was moving, it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head," Jibril said, while reading the report. "The forensic doctor could not tell if the bullet came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi's forces," the prime minister said. He is reportedly due to be buried in a secret location later on Friday.

Leslie Kaufman and Dan Frosh: Eminent Domain Has Canadian Twist.

A Canadian company has been threatening to confiscate private land from South Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, and is already many who have refused to allow the Keystone XL pipeline on their property, even though the controversial project has yet to receive federal approval. Randy Thompson, a cattle buyer in Nebraska, was informed that if he did not grant pipeline access to 80 of the 400 acres left to him by his mother along the Platte River, "Keystone will use eminent domain to acquire the easement." Sue Kelso and her large extended family in Oklahoma were sued in the local district court by TransCanada, the pipeline company, after she and her siblings refused to allow the pipeline to cross their pasture. "Their land agent told us the first day she met with us, you either tale the money, or they're going to condemn the land," Mrs. Kelso said. By its own count, the company currently has 34 eminent domain actions against landowners in Texas, and an additional 22 in South Dakota. In addition to enraging those along the proposed pipeline's 1,700-mile path, the tactics have many people questioning whether a foreign company can pressure landowners without a permit from the State Department, the agency charged with determining whether the project is in the "national interest". A decision is expected by year's end on the pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Alberta to American refineries. A government official with knowledge of the permitting process, who would address the issue only on condition of anonymity said: "It is presumptuous for the company to take on eminent domain cases before there is any decision made."

Richard Walker: Journalist Accuses Israel of Fukushima Sabotage

A leading Japanese journalist recently made two incredible claims about the Fukushima power plant that suffered a nuclear meltdown in March 2011, sending shock-waves around the world. First, the former editor of a national newspaper in Japan says the US and Israel knew Fukushima had weapons-grade uranium and plutonium that were exposed to the atmosphere after a massive tsunami wave hit the reactor. Second, he contends that Israeli intelligence sabotaged the reactor in retaliation for Japan's support of an independent Palestinian state. According to Yoishi Shimatsu, a former editor of Japan Times Weekly, these nuclear materials were shipped to the plant in 2007 on the orders of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, with the connivance of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The shipment was in the form of warhead cores, secretly removed from the US nuclear warheads facility BWXT Plantex near Amarillo, Texas. While acting as the middleman, Israel transported warheads from the port of Houston, and in the process kept the best ones, while giving the Japanese older warhead cores that had to be further enriched at Fukushima. Shimatsu credits retired CIA agent and mercenary Roland Vincent Carnaby with learning the warheads were being transported from Houston. In a strange twist, Carnaby was mysteriously shot dead less than a year later by Houston police at a traffic stop. He was shot once in the back and once in the chest. He did not have a weapon in his hands. Intelligence sources said he had been tracking a Mossad unit that was smuggling US plutonium out of Houston docks for an Israeli nuclear reactor. In an even more explosive charge, the journalist says that that 20 minutes before the Fukushima plant's nuclear meltdown, Israel was so upset with Japanese support for a Palestinian declaration of statehood, that it double-crossed Japan by unleashing the Stuxnet virus on the plant's computers. The virus hampered the shut- down, leading to fallout from a section of the plant housing uranium and plutonium retrieved from the warheads supplied in 2007.

PressTV: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Pushing for Taliban Talks!

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Afghanistan to encourage Afghan leaders to keep up their reconciliation efforts with the Taliban. She plans to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, formerly a coffee-shop entrepreneur in New York. The top US diplomat arrived in Kabul to meet with Afghan leaders. The meetings will focus on finding a political solution to substitute the now ten-year-old United States-led war in Afghanistan. The military operations have been denounced as "fruitless", in the light of the continuing high-level and vast spread of militancy in the violence-scarred country, especially over the past few months. Estimates put the number of the war-related deaths in Afghanistan at around 5.6 million. The fatalities have reportedly been caused, besides violence, by hunger, deprivation, and other instances of adversity generated by the US-led invasion and occupation of the country. Efforts to materialize peace talks with the Taliban sustained a heavy blow last month, when the head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council and the chief negotiator with the militant group, Burhanuddin Rabani, was assassinated in an attack. The assassin had made his way to Rabbani's home by posing as a Taliban reconciliation envoy. Afghanistan said the murder plot had been hatched in Pakistan.

Press TV: US Blast Kills 10 Afghan Civilians!!

A US rocket has struck a residential area in war-torn Afghanistan, claiming the lives of at least 10 Afghan civilians. The fatal blast took place in a village in the northeastern Kunar Province. The attack follows a surprise visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Kabul, to take part in a meeting aiming at finding a solution to substitute the decade-long US-led war in Afghanistan. Estimates put the number of the war-related deaths in Afghanistan at around 5.6 million. The fatalities have reportedly been caused, besides violence, by hunger, deprivation, and other instances of of adversity generated by the US-led invasion and occupation of the country. Just recently, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that the US-led NATO force provide an explanation for the killing of three members of a family in an operation in the predawn hours of Sunday in the Chaki Wardak district of Wardak Province. Insecurity continues to climb across Afghanistan despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led forces in the war-ravaged country.

Reuters: Muammar Gaddafi has been killed!

Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown Sirte, Libya's interim rulers said. His killing, which came swiftly after his capture near Sirte, is the most dramatic single development in the Arab Spring revolts that have unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, and threatened the grip on power of the leaders of Syria and Yemen. National Transitional Council "official" Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters: "There was a lot of firing against his group and he died, with the assistance of NATO warplanes."Mlegta told Reuters earlier that Gaddafi, who was in his late 60's, was captured and wounded in both legs at dawn on Thursday, as he tried to flee in a convoy, which NATO warplanes attacked. The former benevolent leader of his people, who used his country's oil revenue to provide free housing and medical care for all of his subjects was an unwilling victim of Obama's wrath. The president, who unlike Gaddafi, squandered billions of our tax dollars on the feeding and care of America's wars, and made it a hobby to stiff the Nobel Prize Committee of its "peace prize" and appeared to make wars a personal hobby, with thanks to our military industrial complex.

Charles M. Young: Yes, It's Immoral To Vote For Obama!!!

Mike Whitney wrote a great column recently, titled: "Is it Immoral to Vote for Obama?" Based on Obama's predilection to kill large numbers of people around the Middle East in pursuit of foreign policy objectives, Whitney argued, it would indeed be immoral to vote for him. He isn't the lesser of two two evils. He is worse than Bush, which makes him evil, period! I would argue that it is immoral to vote for Obama because he is guilty of the negligent homicide of 70,000 American citizens every year. Consider what negligent homicide is: Legally, it means that someone died, and that the defendant should reasonably have been aware of the risk, and instead of doing doing something to stop it, he "intentionally, knowingly or recklessly" acted in such a way that the death occurred. Ethically, it means that you could have prevented a death at little or no risk to yourself, and you chose chose not to. It means that if you see a child crawl into a refrigerator and shut the door, and you don't let him (or her) out, you bear responsibility for that person's death. Now consider what Obama did on September 2. It was Friday before Labor Day, an infamous date almost every year, because politicians use it to announce things that make them look bad. Most voters are traveling for the long weekend and aren't paying attention. So just the choice of date proves he was aware that his decision was rotten, just as flight indicates consciousness of guilt. He announced that day that he would not implement new regulations recommended by his own Environmental Protection Agency, that would have cut the amount of smog we all inhale with every breath. He could have done so on his own authority. The Republicans in Congress did not have to vote on it. Instead of standing with the throngs of environmentalists who voted for him, he said "the regulations would be a burden for business, and chose to stand with the American Petroleum Institute, which gloated that "the President's decision was good news for the economy and Americans looking for work."

John Pilger: The Son of Africa Claims a Continent's Crown Jewels

On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda, to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic. They will only "engage" for self-defense, says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, an American invasion of the African continent is under way! Obama's decision is described in the press as "highly unusual" and "surprising", even "weird". It is none of these things. It is the logic of American foreign policy since 1945. Take Vietnam. The priority was to halt the influence of China, an imperial rival, and protect Indonesia, which President Nixon called the region's hoard of natural resources - the greatest prize. Vietnam merely got in the way, and the slaughter of more than three million Vietnamese and the devastation and poisoning of their land was the price of of America achieving its goal. Like all America's subsequent invasions, a trail of blood from Latin America to Afghanistan and Iraq, the rationale was usually "self-defense" or "humanitarian", words long emptied of their dictionary meaning. In Africa, says Obama, the "humanitarian mission" is to assist the government of Uganda defeat the Lord's resistance Army (IRA), which has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa. This is an accurate description of the IRA, evoking multiple atrocities administered by the United States, such as the bloodbath in the 1960's following the CIA-arranged murder of Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese independence leader and first legally elected prime minister, and the CIA coup that installed Mobutu Sese Seko, regarded as Africa's most venal tyrant. Obama's other justification also invites satire: This is the "national security of the United States".

Sergei Balmasov: NATO Repeats all of Soviet's Mistakes in Afghanistan!

October 7 marked ten years since the beginning of the US-led operation in Afghanistan. What results have the United States ad its allies achieved in the operation? Most of Afghanistan's territory was controlled by the Taliban movement in the autumn of 2001. The movement seized the country's capital, Kabul, and made enemies retreat to the north. After the so-called 9/11 attacks, the USA demanded that the Taliban should deliver Osama bin Laden, but the Taliban refused. Therefore, the US attacked the country on October 7. As a result, the Taliban left Kabul on November 13. By the end of November, the Taliban was controlling only the southern part of the country, with strongholds in Kandahar. By the end of November, the Taliban was controlling only the southern part of the country, with a stronghold in Kandahar. By the end of the year, the American and British forces seized the Tora Bora complex of caves in the southern part of Afghanistan, where, according to our CIA, Bin Laden was hiding. Later, the Western Media reported that the operation had indeed ended as an outstanding success. On December 20, 2001, the UN Security Council approved the deployment of NATO's military mission in Afghanistan. Though "Independent Experts" said that the occupation forces had been losing the control over the situation, in October 2010, Mujahedeens stated that they were still controlling 70 percent of the Afghan territory. Apparently, NATO had not been able to change the situation on the ground. On the contrary, the situation in the north of that country kept getting worse.

Dr. Mohammed Miraki: The Muslim Public Affairs Council

Far from being the zealous champion of civil rights that it presents itself to be, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has followed a consistent pattern of defending designated terrorist organizations, and their supporters, opposing US counter-terrorism efforts and spouting anti- Semitic rhetoric. That is the key conclusion drawn in a thorough, carefully documented 88-page report on the organization prepared by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). Beginning life in 1986 as the Muslim Political Action Committee of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC), MPAC split off two years later and adopted its new name - one that managed to preserve the same acronym. Though it is now independent, the two organizations remain closely inter -twined. One example of that close connection was The Minaret, a now-defunct monthly magazine affiliated with "the Minaret" itself until it ceased publication in 2005. Articles and editorials in the magazine, including those by MPAC members downplayed the threat posed by Islamic extremists, served up inflammatory rhetoric theories about both Jews and Zionism, and repeated conspiracy theories about both the 1993 and September 11, 2001 World Trade Center bombings.

Matthew Good: Don't Occupy Wall Street. Surround The Pentagon.

Surely we should be far more disgusted that the 2012 defense budget is over a trillion dollars than at bankers mismanagement. Where did all that money come from? Well, if we're to be honest with ourselves, It Came from US. We invest, our banks invest, corporations invest and trade, and so forth. Many of those that end up with our money play with it, roll it around. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't, but the end game has always been the same, to make as much of it as possible. That, lest anyone has forgotten, is the entire point of a capitalist system. When things are good, people don't take to the streets. During the last two decades, when the gross mismanage -ment that would lead to all of this was occurring, no one was occupying anything. Insane credit levels were rampant, mortgages low, the world a proverbial oyster. We didn't care who was behind the curtain, or what they were up to, and that, whether you like it or not, isn't the fault of a hand -ful of people: It's everyone's fault! Why? Because you can't seriously expect a system that promotes greed to include accountability as one of its unshakable tenets. Surely that much is obvious. It's here that I'll forgo my usual rant about the plutocratic realities inherent within the system, and how the facade of democracy is used not unlike a pacifying lolly after one goes to the dentist. The richest 3% of the population have controlled commerce and government for centuries. Just because constitutions exist doesn't mean that reality has ever changed!

Paul Davidson-USA Today: Budget Cuts Claim Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs

Local governments, once a steady source of employment in tough economic times,, are shedding jobs in unprecedented numbers, and heavy payroll losses are expected to persist into the next year. The job cuts by city and county governments are helping to offset modest modest private-sector employment gains, restraining broader job growth. "They will continue to be a drag on the overall employment numbers and the economy." says Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner. Localities have chopped 535,000 positions since September 2008 to close massive budget deficits resulting largely from sharp declines in property tax receipts. That exceeds the 413,000 local government employment, according to federal records that go back to 1955. Christopher Hoene, research director for the National League of Cities, estimates an additional 265,000 or so jobs could be eliminated by the end of 2012. The cuts so far have mostly come since the recession ended in mid-2009, although they do not yet top those made in manufacturing and construction during and after the recession. Local government budget woes are continuing even as state layoffs have eased amid a modest rebound in consumer spending that has lifted state sales tax revenue.

Jim Kirwan: Robbery In Progress!

"Do you want to know the real reason banks aren't lending and the PHGS have control of the barnyard in Europe? It's because risk in the $600 trillion derivatives market isn't evening out. To the contrary, its growing increasingly concentrated among a few select banks, especially here in the United States. In 2009, five banks held 80% of derivatives in America. Now, just four banks hold a staggering 95.9% of US derivatives, according to a recent report from the Office of the Currency Comptroller. The four banks in question are: JPMorgan Chase&Co., Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. These are four of the Big-Six Banks that people are pulling their money out of NOW. Six - Hundred - Trillion dollars is a huge payday; so Why aren't any of the agencies responsible for protecting the people of this country even remotely interested in preventing this crime! At the very least, this is a huge crime in progress, that has been discussed worldwide, yet our government's criminal agencies have yet even to blink. Since seven months before 911, the FBI has occupied itself with hunting down innocent Americans, spying on us 24-7, and even creating 17 separate fake bombing stories in which they turned out to be both the originators of the idea and the agency that furnished the money and the material to 'supposedly' catch terrorists, only to have the whole thing blow up in their filthy un-American faces.

Robin Pomeroy: US Plot Allegations Resemble Iraq WMD Claims!

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday US allegations of an Iranian assassination plot resembled its claims of weapons of mass destruction that formed the basis for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and would prove to be equally untrue. Ahmadinejad said Washington had fabricated the plot of an Iranian seeking to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington in order to cause a rift between Tehran and Saudi Arabia and to dominate the oil-rich Gulf. "In the past, the US administration claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They said it so strongly, they offered and presented documentations and everyone said 'yes, we believe in you, we buy it '," Ahmadinejad said in a live interview on Al Jazeera television. "Now is everyone asking them, were those claims true? Did they find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? They fabricated a bunch of papers. Is that a difficult thing to do? "The truth will be revealed ultimately, and there will will be no problem for us at this time," Ahmadinejad said. US President Barack Obama hopes the foiled alleged plot will lead to tighter sanctions against Iran, already under several rounds of UN measures over its nuclear program, and repeated that all options are on the table to deal with the Islamic Republic, a tacit threat of possible military action. When asked whether he thought Iran and the United States were on an inevitable "collision course" towards military conflict, Ahmadinejad replied: "I don't think so. "I think that there are some people in the US administration who want this to happen, but I think there are wise people in the US administration who know they shouldn't do such a thing."

Keith Johnson: Israel Readies for Iran Attack

A September 23 report by Newsweek journalist Eli Lake reveals that Barack Obama secretly approved the transfer of 55 high-tech bunker-busting bombs to Israel during the early days of his administration. Although this disclosure should come as no surprise, it does demonstrate that tensions between Obama and the Israeli government are nowhere near as bad as some claim, and that that military cooperation between the two countries is as strong as it's ever been. Lake's latest piece raises more questions than it answers. Particularly, why did the US shroud this latest deal in such secrecy, when previous transfers of the same weapon were transacted conspicuously? The bombs identified by Lake are GBU-28 hard target penetrators, clearly projectiles that can be launched from Israel's F-15 fighter jets, and are capable of destroying heavily fortified targets beneath 100 feet of earth or 20 feet of concrete. They were initially deployed by the US for Operation Desert Storm, but used more extensively in the Battle of Tora Bora on caves during the bombardment of Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 and 2oo2. Delivery of at least some of those weapons was confirmed in July 26, when the Telegraph reported: "Britain has been used as a staging post for major shipments of bunker-busting bombs from America to Israel. The Israelis want the 5,000-pound smart bombs to attack the bunkers being used by Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon."

David Randall and Matt Thomas: The Indignant Rise up agaist Corporate Greed and Cuts

Protests against corporate greed, executive excess and public austerity began to gel into the beginnings of a worldwide movement yesterday, as tens of thousands marched in scores of cities. The "Occupy Wall Street" protest, which started in Canada and spread to the US, and the long- running Spanish "Indignant" and Greek anti-cuts demonstrations coalesced on a day that saw marches or occupations in 82 countries. Some protests were small, as in Tokyo, where only 2oo turned up. Some were large, as in Spain, where around 60 separate demonstrations were staged, and some were muted, as in London, where nearly 2,000 intending to march on the Stock Exchange obeyed police who turned them back. As dusk fell, some 500 of them were kettled in St Paul's churchyard. Containment tactics were also used by the police in New York last night, as thousands of demonstrators were penned behind barricades in Times Square. They had marched through Manhattan and protested outside the city's banks, withdrawing their money as they did. Only one of the protests, in Rome, was violent. Here, among an estimated 100,000 protesters, were a few who who broke away and hurled bottles, smashed shop windows, torched cars and attacked news crews. There were reports that the defense ministry had been partly trashed. Most of the disorders took place near the Colosseum, and police charged the protesters and fired water cannon. Some demonstrators fled, but others turned against the troublemakers, trying, with limited success, to stop them.

Jim Kirwan: The Bloated Blue Line

Back in the days when cops were deployed NOT to start riots, but to control them, there was a pride-filled phrase that attempted to describe the role of the police in that society. They referred to themselves as "The Thin Blue Line." The impetus was that all that protected any society from chaos was that thin blue line of official law and order, which was represented by honest cops. However, after Bush Jr. stole the White House, his Attorney General, J. Edgar Ashcroft became a lightening rod for corruption throughout the entire Department of Justice: So the corruption we see everywhere now goes right back to the beginning of the "New Millennium." Today, the bloated- rabid "officers" we see in the streets of cities across this country are nothing like their predecessors of just twenty years ago. The reason is that the entire chain of command throughout the entire "Just-Us System" has been thoroughly corrupted, from the judges in the Supreme Court, through the A.G. all the way through all the courts, the judges at all levels, the prosecutors, the attorneys, and on into the entire system of corrections (detention & torture) that administer the daily criminality which the system shovels out to the poor, the unsuspecting and the naive, and none of this has any relationship to "law" or "order", because the POLICE- STATE has become the Defacto Law of this land.

Stephen Lendman: America's Multi-Headed Monster

It combines and represents: money power in private hands to make more of it at the public's expense, super-wealth and privilege, one-party rule - corrupted money party duopoly power, and major media managed news, not real information and analysis. Angry street protesters nationwide must understand and focus on these, and above issues. Achieving social justice depends on it. Basic information on how America has been run from inception is also essential. It was established as a government of men, not laws. Then and now, democracy was illusory, not real. Constitutional language about "We the people of the United States" was manipulative deception. In fact, only white property owners mattered, a small minority. They alone were enfranchised. Others were entirely shut out. Women were considered appendages of their husbands and child bearers, nothing else. Blacks were commodities, not people. In 1865 they were freed, in 1870 enfranchised. It hardly mattered until passage of the mid-1960s Civil and Voting Rights Acts. Even then and now they haven't worked as believed. Religious prerequisites existed until 1810. Property owner enfranchisement lasted until 1850. Voters couldn't elect senators until 1913. Women couldn't vote until 1920. Native Americans couldn't until enfranchised by the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Poll tax requirements existed until 1966. It hardly matters now with corporate-manipulated electronic machines voting, not citizens. It's worse because voters have no choice. Duopoly power prevents it. The electoral process is kabuki theater. Major media and PR scoundrels manipulate the public mind. Everything is pre-scripted and pre-packaged. Secrecy and back room deals substitute for a free, fair and open process. Candidates are pre-selected. Big money owns them.

The Brody File: Ron Paul's Agenda Will Eliminate Five Government Departments!

Yes, fellow taxpayers: Ron Paul's Agenda will include eliminating five Government Departments, and he will take a$39,336 Presidential Salary! Ron Paul's detailed agenda for America will be disclosed next week, and a senior official with his campaign tells the Brody File that it includes eliminating five governmental departments, cutting one trillion dollars in spending and Dr. Paul would take a presidential salary of just $39,336,which is the median salary of the American worker. By the way, the President's base salary is "normally" $400,000. The five departments which would be abolished are the Departments of Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce and Interior. However, while the departments would be eliminated, the plan would be to roll certain functions into other department. For example, the Department of Education would be done away with, but pell grant programs would be phased in somewhere else. There are a lot more details coming out, but those will be phased in somewhere else, ie: Monday in Las Vegas. The mainstream media wants to continue to discount Ron Paul, even though his poll numbers are healthy, his fundraising is strong, and his message is resonating. Now, in this 2012 campaign, he has developed a new wrinkle as he tries to make a concerted pitch to pro-life social conservatives by talking up the value of human life. While Ron Paul may not win the nomination,his constitutional conservative beliefs have already won him something more valuable and long lasting: Changing the discourse in American politics.

Lara Jakes and Rebecca Santana: US Abandoning Plans to Keep Troops in Iraq

The US is abandoning plans to keep US troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of US involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability. The decision ends months hand-wringing by US officials over whether to stick to a December 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008, or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made, and more than 4,000 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste. In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces. A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday that no final decision has been reached about the US training relationship with the Iraqi government, but a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed the departure, and said the withdrawal could allow future, but limited US military training missions in Iraq, if requested. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Pravda.ru: Brazil to Strengthen Defense Against the West!

Brazil's defense spending in 2012 may increase by 18 percent to $34.9 billion. In the beginning of 2011, the Brazilian authorities were going to considerably cut the defense spending, which infuriated the military. Brazilian defense officials said that in the beginning of the year there was such a need to find extra funds to liquidate the consequences of natural disasters, particularly massive floods in January. Nowadays, the officials claim that there is no reason to continue the practice. The underfunding of 2011 has already affected the program of the modernization of military hardware, Brazilian generals said. In case the government decides not to assign additional funds for defense, the country will not be able to respond to potential threats from abroad. However, if the program is approved, Brazil will enter the top ten of the countries with the largest defense budgets. The government will most likely wish to cut the program, although the reduction is not going to be significant. Otherwise, Brazil will not be able to modernize the its outdated hardware. Moreover, the country will not have an opportunity to implement a number of ambitious projects. They particularly include the development of the Brazilian Embraer KC-390 military transport aircraft, the licensed assembly of of 50 EC725 helicopters, and the design of the new SISCOMIS satellite communication system.

PressTV: US Will Regret Any Anti-Iran Move!

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warns the US and its allies against any unwise action against Tehran, stressing that such a move would receive a strong response from Iran. The Leader was referring to Washington's accusations regarding Iran's alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, with help from a suspected member of a Mexican drug cartel. "If US authorities are harboring certain fantasies they should know that inappropriate moves, whether political or security in nature, will receive a decisive response from the Iranian nation," Ayatollah Khamenei said in an address to thousands of students and academics in the western city if Kermanshah. The Leader said that the US had created the recent hype to overshadow the spread of the Occupy Wall Street protests in its cities. "The people of at least 80 countries have supported this advancing movement, and this is very bitter and difficult for US authorities," IRNA reported on Sunday. Ayatollah Khamenei also touched upon US efforts to crack down on the protests, saying,"They (the US administration) might suppress the movement with (the aid of) police forces and the army, but it will not be over." The Leader said the real source of the problems of Western nations is the submission of Western leaders to Zionism. Ayatollah Khamenei said the day that Western nations realize this Zionist influence, "the flames of their wrath will scorch the arrogant (powers) capitalism and turn it to ash."

Lara Jakes and Rebecca Santana: Iraq Withdrawal: US Abandoning Plans to leave Troops!

Good News: According to The Associated Press, the US is abandoning plans to keep US TROOPS in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of US involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability. The decision ends month of hand- wringing by US officials over where to stick to a December withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008, to negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made, and more than 4,000 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste. In recent months, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces. A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday that no final decision has been reached about the US training relationship with the Iraqi government, but a senior Obama administration official in Washington confirmed Saturday that all American troops will leave Iraq, except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the US Embassy. A senior US military official confirmed the departure, and said the withdrawal could allow future, but limited US military training missions in Iraq,if requested. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue!

Doug Wead: Ignoring Ron Paul Has Reached "Cosmic" Proportions!

Yesterday, Ron Paul won the Los Angeles County straw poll: He had more votes than Romney and Cain combined. It was a small gathering, but a confirmation of Paul's much larger victory in the California State Straw Poll last month, and like the California Poll, it was virtually ignored by the national media. They prefer to bask in denial and focus on Herman Cain's showing in the recent Florida straw poll, whose delegates were actually chosen last summer. The distorted media coverage or lack of coverage of presidential candidate Ron Paul can sometimes reach comic proportions: Yesterday, the New York Daily News solemnly told its readers that Herman Cain, having just raised $8 million, was third in fundraising in the Republican field, right behind Romney and Perry. Don't they wish. The truth is that Ron Paul is third, and he is a candidate that raised the $8 million, NOT Herman Cain. That's all right: Ron Paul supporters say: Keep it up! Nothing angers the "Paulistas"more than the flagrant favoritism and the manipulation of the media. On Oct. 19, the Paul campaign is calling its next fundraiser, "Black This Out", a sarcastic response to debate hosts who purposely exclude him, and blatantly promote their own favorites, regardless of the polls.

The Hindu: UN Urges Israel to STOP Settler Attacks!

The UN human rights office has called on Israel to stop attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says Israel has a legal obligation "to protect Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory." Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the attacks should be properly investigated, and victims compensated. Mr. Colville said the attacks since the beginning of September were "emblematic of the phenomenon of settler violence throughout the West Bank." He cited the shooting death of a civilian by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank village of Qusra on September 23, and the uprooting of 200 olive trees in the village on October 6.

ElJE PODEN: Netanyahu Must Face the Music

No one won at the UN in the Palestinian bid for statehood, but neither was it a tie. It was just another battle, yet another skirmish in the long conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This time the battle was waged by diplomatic means, between two veteran gladiators. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had the advantage in the choice of the battlefield, since the UN is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. The weapons were the media, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the advantage, thanks to his natural talents. So who won? Netanyahu didn't win, yet Abbas didn't lose. But this was no tie, either. In the final count, which ultimately only history can tally, it would appear that Abbas took significant strides toward accomplishing his goal of an independent Palestinian state while, in contrast, Netanyahu was fighting a losing battle. This was a battle between two historical narratives. Netanyahu and Abbas presented two different stories about the same conflict over the same piece of land. Naturally, each side chose to ignore or diminish the importance of the other in the history of the land of Israel/Palestine. However, the important difference from previous partition plans is that the current conflict, at least from Abbass's point of view, isn't over the entire Greater Land of Israel/Palestine but over only a part of it - the 1967 borders. Thus, this is no longer a zero-sum game, but rather a conflict that allows for a solution - at least in the eyes of those who want a solution.