Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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Inter Press Service:
"A special envoy from President Barack Obama raised the possibility in a secret meeting with senior Iraqi military and civilian officials in Baghdad Sep. 23 that his administration would leave more than 15,000 combat troops in Iraq after the 2011 deadline for U.S. withdrawal, according to a senior Iraqi intelligence official familiar with the details of the meeting.
But the White House official, Puneet Talwar, special assistant to the president and senior director for the Gulf States, Iran and Iraq on the National Security Council (NSC) staff, said the deployment would have to be handled in a way that was consistent the president's pledge to withdraw U.S. troops completely from Iraq under the 2008 agreement, the official said.
Talwar suggested that the combat troops could be placed under the cover of the State Department's security force, the Iraqi intelligence official told IPS..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/16
-->Another peace promise being broken by our peace prize president? The NY Times didn't think this latest betrayal of the antiwar movement even worth reporting on.
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Reuters:
"GENEVA - The new U.N. torture expert urged the United States on Tuesday to conduct a full investigation into torture under the Bush administration and prosecute offenders as well as senior officials who ordered it.
Juan Ernesto Mendez told Reuters he also hoped to visit Iraq to probe a 'very widespread practice of torture' of detainees with the help of coalition forces, revealed in confidential U.S. files issued by Wikileaks.
He will also try to visit the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo -- on condition that he is granted private interviews with prisoners still being held by the Obama administration, he said in his first interview with an international media organisation since taking up the independent post two weeks ago.
'The United States has a duty to investigate every act of torture. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much in the way of accountability,' said Mendez, himself a former torture victim, in the wide-ranging interview at the United Nations in Geneva."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/16-7
-->Stories like this make the empire look bad. Of course The NY Times wouldn't report it.
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The Hill:
"Anti-war Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) says he will force a vote on a hard date for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan on the heels of reports they could remain there at least through 2014.
Kucinich said Wednesday that he will force a vote via privileged resolution at the beginning of the next Congress on ending the war in Afghanistan by the end of 2011...
His announcement comes after The New York Times reported that the Obama administration has stressed that it will leave troops in place at least through the end of 2014 in an effort to persuade Afghans and the Taliban the U.S. intends to complete its mission."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/11-5
-->The NY Times doesn't report on Congressional initiatives to end the war. Major news sources in the US still overwhelmingly support the wars in the Middle East, even though the American people do not.
