'US mafia-like groups funding Taliban, terrorists in Afghanistan' 23 Aug 2010 Afghan President Hamid Karzai says
private security firms are a source of corruption in his country as they have
ties with Mafia-like groups funding the Taliban. "I am appealing to the US
taxpayers not to allow their hard-earned money to be wasted on groups that are
not only providing lots of inconveniences to the Afghan people, but actually
are, God knows, in contact with Mafia-like groups and perhaps also
funding militants and insurgents and terrorists through those firms,"
the Los Angles Times quoted Karzai as saying on Monday. The Afghan
chief executive made the comments one day after he ordered all the foreign
security firms to cease to operate by the end of 2010.

Amid flooding, CIA resumes Pakistan drone campaign --Some fear the air strikes are coming at the worst possible moment 23 Aug 2010 After a little-noticed, weeks long
disruption caused by the monsoons that devastated Pakistan, the CIA in recent
days has picked up the pace of its missile strikes against Islamic militants civilians with
back-to-back attacks against terror targets that have killed at least 11 people
in the country’s northwest region. But the air strikes have raised fresh
concerns among some Pakistani officials that the agency is resuming its lethal
campaign at the worst possible moment, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis
that has submerged one sixth of the country and left at least six million people
homeless.

US Drone strike kills 20 people in Pakistan 23 Aug 2010 Missiles fired from a U.S. pilotless drone aircraft killed 13 militants and 7 civilians in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Monday, Pakistani
intelligence officials said. They said the missiles were fired at a militant
hideout. Most of the militants killed were members of the Afghan Taliban. Four
women and three children were among the dead, said the officials.

Afghans Say NATO Troops Killed 8 Civilians in Raid 24 Aug 2010 Officials and residents of Baghlan Province, in northern Afghanistan, accused NATO troops on Monday of killing eight civilians
during an early morning raid. Mohammed Ismail, the governor of the Talah wa
Barfak District, said troops entered a district house at 2 a.m. and killed 8
civilians, injured 12 and took 9 prisoners.

Two French troops killed in Afghanistan 23 Aug 2010 An exchange of fire between French troops and Taliban raged near the Afghan capital amid a surge in militant attacks on foreign forces in the
war-torn country. President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said the troops were
fatally shot during a night operation in north-east of Kabul.

US-led soldier dies in Afghanistan 24 Aug 2010 US-led soldier dies in Afghanistan 24 Aug 2010 A US-led soldier has been killed in fresh clashes in southern Afghanistan, a NATO statement says. NATO
says the latest death brings to 12 the number of US-led troops killed in
Afghanistan during the past three days. The statement did not reveal the
nationally of the troop or the location of the incident.

Three US troops injured in Afghanistan 24 Aug 2010 At least three American soldiers have been injured in an attack on a military convoy in southeastern Afghanistan amid a surge in Taliban attacks
against foreign troops. According to Afghan officials, the incident took place
in the central Afghan province of Logar on Tuesday morning, a Press TV
correspondent reported. Provincial officials said the soldiers were injured when
their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the volatile region.

Pickens urged Bush to take Iraq's oil 23 Aug 2010 As the last American combat troops left Iraq last week, oil-tycoon-turned-clean-energy-innovator T. Boone Pickens was at the American
Renewable Energy Day conference in Aspen, lamenting that the U.S. didn’t take
hold of the rich oil fields in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation before they
left. Pickens at first elicited laughs from an audience at the Paepcke
Auditorium on Saturday night, as he bluntly made the case for America’s right to
Iraq’s oil. Those laughs subsided as he recalled how he personally lobbied
Presidents [sic] George W. Bush and Barack Obama to seize Iraq’s natural
resources... "It’s absolutely nuts to lose 5,000 people, have 31,000
injured, and spend a trillion dollars, and you didn’t even get the
oil," Pickens said.

Attacks in Baghdad kill 3, wound 20 people 23 Aug 2010 A spate of bombing attacks in Baghdad killed three people and wounded 20, police officials said Monday. In one of the bombings, Baghdad police said
unknown attackers in a speeding car threw a grenade in the eastern neighborhood
of New Baghdad around 6:30 a.m. Monday. The blast killed one policeman and
wounded another, a city police official said.

Blackwater fined $42m for breaking US export, arms traffic laws 24 Aug 2010 Private defence company Blackwater has been fined $42m (£27m) for violating US export and arms traffic laws. The
nearly 300 breaches include the export of illegal weapons to Afghanistan and
doing unauthorised business with Sudan. The alleged violations were revealed by
the US State Department on Monday. The multi-million dollar settlement means
that Blackwater, now known as XE Services, will be able to bid for government
contracts.

WikiLeaks founder hires star lawyer over Swedish claims 24 Aug 2010 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hired one of Sweden's top defence lawyers ahead of a looming decision by prosecutors about
whether he will face molestation charges, reports said Tuesday. Leif Silbersky,
a high-profile attorney and co-author of a long line of crime novels, has been
hired to represent the 39-year-old Australian, the Aftonbladet daily
reported on its website. "I can confirm that I will represent him," Silbersky
told the paper.

Some Doubt Intent of Accusations Against WikiLeaks Founder 24 Aug 2010 Although Swedish prosecutors have yet to complete their review of sexual abuse accusations that two Stockholm women made
last week against Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks Web site, those who
say they have detailed knowledge of the case discount conspiracy theories
linking it to efforts to discredit WikiLeaks. Mr. Assange had suggested over the
weekend that the tortured sequence of events at the Stockholm prosecutor’s
office had been prompted by the Pentagon as part of what he called a program of
"dirty tricks to ruin us."

Sweden to Probe Charges Against WikiLeaks' Assange 23 Aug 2010 Swedish Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne will investigate the charges brought against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this
week, she said Monday. On Friday, the prosecution authority charged Mr. Assange
with alleged rape and molestation, but dropped the rape charges the following
day. It said it would decide this week whether to pursue the molestation case.
The two cases originated in different areas of Sweden.

Thousands strain Fort Hood's mental health system --At Fort Hood, emotional problems among the soldiers threaten to overwhelm the system in place to help them. 23 Aug
2010 Nine months after an Army psychiatrist was charged with fatally shooting 13
soldiers and wounding 30, the nation's largest Army post can measure the toll of
war in the more than 10,000 mental health evaluations, referrals or therapy
sessions held every month. About every fourth soldier here, where 48,000 troops
and their families are based, has been in counseling during the past year,
according to the service's medical statistics.

Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, at 9/11 event in Pa. 23 Aug 2010 Michelle Obama will join former first lady Laura Bush in ceremonies marking the ninth anniversary of the United Flight 93 crash
[after Cheney's command to shoot it down] in Pennsylvania during the Sept. 11
attacks. Passengers aboard the flight are believed to have struggled with its
hijackers before the jet crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa., killing all
aboard.

NORAD jets to train over central California 24 Aug 2010 The North American Aerospace Defense Command is conducting training flights over central California to practice interception and identification
procedures. The exercise is scheduled Wednesday. Fighter jets will be tracking
other aircraft playing the role of "tracks of interest."

AK man who compiled hit list sentenced to 8 years in prison --Length of Rockwood's sentence maximum penalty for crime 23 Aug 2010 A King Salmon man who compiled a hit list of targets
he believed were enemies of Islam was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison.
Paul Rockwood Jr., with his wife, Nadia Rockwood, faced counts of lying to FBI
agent [the actual architects of the plan] when questioned about the list of 20
targets in May. They pleaded guilty to domestic terrorism last month, the first
time such charges were brought in Alaska under the Patriot Act.

Conn. Town Considers Tracking Devices for Students 23 Aug 2010 In the tony town of New Canaan, students might someday get tracking tags along with their textbooks. No decisions have yet been
made, but school officials plan to look into the possibility of adding radio
frequency tags to student or staff ID cards, or place them on school property,
like laptops, the New Canaan Advertiser reports. The company that makes the devices is SecureRF
Corporation, based in Westport. It has applied for a $100,000 grant from the
National Science Foundation to conduct science research and wants New Canaan
High School to use the technology, the Advertiser reports.

Alabama Official Calls Feinberg a BP 'Corporate Shill,' WSJ Says [At CLG, we just call him 'BP wh*re.'] 24 Aug 2010 Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. government’s choice to
run the BP Plc-funded Gulf Coast Claims Facility, was labeled a "corporate
shill" of the U.K. company by Alabama’s Attorney General Tom King, the Wall
Street Journal reported. Feinberg formally assumed his role as the facility’s
administrator on Aug. 23; BP was handling damage claims on its own before his
appointment... "Mr. Feinberg seems completely tone-deaf to the concerns of
people living along the Gulf Coast," King said, while Feinberg said he
"respectfully disagreed" with the criticism, the WSJ reported.

Brad Pitt 'willing to look at the death penalty' in rant against BP 22 Aug 2010 Brad Pitt has waded into the Gulf oil spill controversy with an extraordinary veiled attack on BP. The Hollywood actor
said he would consider the death penalty for those to blame for the ruptured
well that gushed millions of gallons of oil into the ocean. Asked about the
people responsible for the crisis, the 'Inglourious Basterds' star said: 'I was
never for the death penalty before - I am willing to look at it
again.'

Mega barf alert! Wal-Mart recalls 380,000 pounds of Listeria-tainted deli meat 24 Aug 2010 Zemco Industries in Buffalo, New York, has recalled approximately 380,000 pounds of deli meat that may be contaminated with
bacteria that can cause a potentially fatal disease, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture announced Monday. The products were distributed to Wal-Marts
nationwide, according to the USDA's website. The meats may be contaminated with
Listeria monocytogenes, which was discovered in a retail sample collected by
inspectors in Georgia.

Congress begins investigating salmonella outbreak, egg recalls 23 Aug 2010 The House Energy and Commerce Committee requested documents and information Monday from Wright County Egg and Hillandale
Farms of Iowa related to the recent salmonella outbreak and egg recalls,
according to a news release from the office of the committee's chairman, Rep.
Henry Waxman, D-California. Waxman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, sent letters to the two Iowa-based egg
producers asking for details on the contamination of their egg products,
including when government officials and customers of the affected egg products
were first notified of the contamination.

US July Existing Home Sales Plunge 27.2% to 3.83M Rate 24 Aug 2010 Existing home sales plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in July as inventories soared, painting a grim picture for the
housing market absent government support in a stubbornly sluggish economy. Home
resales dropped a record 27.2%--nearly twice as much as analysts had
expected--to an annual rate of 3.83 million in July, the National Association of
Realtors said Tuesday. Meanwhile, inventories rose to 12.5 months from 8.9
months in June, pressuring already depressed home prices. Inventories are at
their highest level in more than a decade.

Carville: A 'Triumvirate of Tea' Benefits From $300 Million From the Right 23 Aug 2010 Conservative organizations, including American Crossroads headed by Bush White House aide Karl Rove, are
spending an astounding $300 million to bolster the campaigns of Republican
Senate hopefuls Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Rand Paul, and others, according to
longtime Democratic strategist James Carville. With that much money in play,
Carville says Democratic control of the Senate is in doubt with this November's
midterm elections... The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision,
engineered by the court's conservative bloc, has opened a potential floodgate of
special-interest money in this year's elections because the ruling swept away
decades of limits on corporate influence on elections.

The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama By Jane Mayer 30 Aug 2010 The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money
to "educate," fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn
their private agenda into a mass movement... A Republican campaign consultant
who has done research on behalf of Charles and David Koch said of the Tea Party,
"The Koch brothers gave the money that founded it. It’s like they put the seeds
in the ground. Then the rainstorm comes, and the frogs come out of the mud--and
they’re our candidates!"

US court halts government funding of stem cell research 23 Aug 2010 A US court on Monday issued a temporary halt to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research which President Barack Obama
had authorized, saying it involved the destruction of human embryos. US District
Court Judge Royce [lunatic] Lamberth ruled in favor of a Christian group
that opposes the research, issuing a temporary injunction that will allow
plaintiffs to bring their lawsuit before the court.

Group wants to end setting dogs on chained bears --'Bear baying' only allowed in South Carolina 23 Aug 2010 A declawed, defanged bear is chained to a stake as
hunting dogs bark and snap, trying to force the bear to stand on its hind legs.
The training exercise called bear baying is intended to make the bears easier to
shoot in the wild and it's only allowed in South Carolina. Armed with new
undercover video of four such events, the Humane Society of the United States is
pressuring state officials to explicitly outlaw the practice, which the
organization says is effectively banned in every other state.

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Previous lead stories: Reagan: Taliban 'moral equivalent of America's founding fathers' Posted by Lori Price 22 Aug 2010 'In 1982, Ronald Reagan dedicated the Space Shuttle
Columbia to the resistance fighters [Taliban] in Afghanistan.' (Video)
--Taliban still have Reagan's Stingers 26 Sep 2001 One of the
most dangerous weapons Western pilots could face in Afghanistan is an
anti-aircraft missile provided by the United States during the Reagan
presidency. Some 1,000 Stingers were supplied to the mujahideen from 1986
onwards after Ronald Reagan overcame CIA objections that they were too
dangerous to be given to the rebels.

Pentagon's $300 million air base expansions reflect long-term investment in Afghanistan 23 Aug 2010 Three $100 million air base expansions in southern and northern Afghanistan illustrate Pentagon
plans to continue building multimillion-dollar facilities in that country to
support increased U.S. military operations well into the future. Despite growing
public unhappiness with the Afghan war -- and President Obama's pledge that he
will begin withdrawing troops in July 2011 -- many of the installations being
built in Afghanistan have extended time horizons. None of the three projects in
southern and northern Afghanistan is expected to be completed until the latter
half of 2011. All of them are for use by U.S. forces rather than their Afghan
counterparts.

WikiLeaks' Assange Tells Aftonbladet He Never Forced Anyone to Have Sex 22 Aug 2010 Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, says he has never had sex with anyone against their will,
denying rape charges brought against him in Sweden, Aftonbladet reported today, citing an interview with Assange. "What I can
say is that I have never, in Sweden or in any country, had sex with anyone in a
way that hasn’t been based on voluntariness by both sides," Assange told the
newspaper. Assange was arrested in absentia by a Swedish prosecutor on charges
of rape and molestation. A second prosecutor later dropped the rape charges
against him...

Source:

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