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Bush, Blair found guilty of war crimes

www.presstv.ir
A War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of war crimes for their roles in the Iraq war, Press TV reports.

The five-panel Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal decided that Bush and Blair committed genocide and crimes against humanity by leading the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a Press TV correspondent reported on Tuesday.

In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction allegedly stockpiled by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Malaysian tribunal judges ruled that the decision to wage war against Iraq by the two former heads of government was a flagrant abuse of law and an act of aggression that led to large-scale massacres of the Iraqi people.

Bombings and other forms of violence became commonplace in Iraq shortly after the US-led invasion of the country.

In their ruling, the tribunal judges also stated that the US, under the leadership of Bush, fabricated documents to make it appear that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

However, the world later learned that the former Iraqi regime did not possess WMDs and that the US and British leaders knew this all along.

Over one million Iraqis were killed during the invasion, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.

The judges also said the court findings should be provided to signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, and added that the names of Bush and Blair should be listed on a war crimes register.

Iran conducts 4-day air defense drill

www.ynetnews.com
The Iranian army was set to launch an air defense drill Friday evening simulating an attack on the country’s nuclear facilities, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

According to the regime’s mouthpiece, the four-day drill will be held in eastern Iran and stress “the characteristics of the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine in the framework of the heightened air defense alert level.”

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Russian Foreign Minister Decries West’s Global Provocation In Syria

globalresearch.ca
The situation in Syria can lead to destabilisation of the situation in other Arab countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

After the talks with his Kazakhstani counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov on Monday, Lavrov said, “Tension continues to heighten in the region. The public stirs up in Egypt. Disorders have begun in Bahrain. Attacks on government buildings have been made in Kuwait.”

“I don’t rule out that these processes are conditioned by what the atmosphere is being created in Syria when certain foreign players call on the Syrian opposition not to start the dialogue with the authorities,” the minister said. At the same time, he noted, “Foreign countries’ policy towards Syria gives in to temptation by neighbouring states in order to use the situation for their benefit and stir up tension in their states.”

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US sources: Israel ministers who opposed Iran strike are now for it

DEBKAfile
American sources told Fox television early Sunday, Nov. 6 that all the senior Israeli ministers who were formerly against attacking Iran’s nuclear sites are now for it, having been updated on Iran’s clandestine progress toward building a nuclear weapon. This information is due to be borne out when the IAEA publishes its next Iran report Tuesday, Nov. 8. The ministers are said to have changed their minds in the belief that the next round of sanctions will not be tough enough and point to the precedent of Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor which was never rebuilt.

According to debkafile‘s Washington sources, the Obama administration attributes the change of heart by those ministers to a conviction that Iran already has a nuclear weapon.

And so after ten days after feverish, unattributed Israeli news reporting on an imminent attack, the administration has drawn certain lines: Israel should go forward with its plans to strike Iran, while Washington will stress “diplomatic strategy.”

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Syrian Domino: UN’s IAEA Claims Assad Regime Working on Nukes

infowars.com
The United Nations nuclear agency claims it has detected a previously unknown complex in Syria that leads the International Atomic Energy Agency to believe the Assad regime worked with the so-called father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, A.Q. Khan.
photoIn 2007, the Israelis claimed to have bombed a nuclear plant in Syria.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapon program was green-lighted by the United States in the 1980s. At the time, the U.S. was working closely with Pakistani intelligence to recruit and arm the Afghan Mujahideen who were fighting Soviet troops in the country.

Asked for his views on Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions, Ronald Reagan replied “I just don’t think it’s any of our business,” Andrew Cockburn reported in 2009.

“During the years that the infamous A.Q. Khan was peddling his uranium enrichment technology around the place, his shipping manager was a CIA agent, whose masters seem to have had little problem with allowing the trade to go forward,” Cockburn writes.

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Prince of Wales: a private individual’s effective veto over public legislation

The Guardian
Prince of WalesFrom the London Olympics and gambling to children’s rights and shipwrecks, the list of draft bills scrutinised by the Prince of Wales and his officials reads like the busiest Whitehall portfolio imaginable.

The 62-year-old prince isn’t a minister, an MP or even a lord; in constitutional terms, he is a subject of the crown like any other. But it has emerged that he has a far more formal role in shaping our laws than many people – legislators and civil servants included – ever knew.

Prince Charles is routinely asked to give his consent to pieces of new legislation in what is effectively a power of veto. Since 2005, ministers from six departments have sought his approval for a dozen bills.

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Israeli prisoner swap may be prelude to attack on Iran

Washington Times
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to execute a 1,000-for-1 prisoner exchange last week despite his frequently voiced opposition to such lopsided deals is seen by several Israeli military commentators as an effort to “clear the deck” before possibly undertaking an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Amir Oren, the veteran military analyst for Ha’aretz newspaper, took note of Israel’s exchanging 1,027 Palestinian convicts for army Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who had been captured by Hamas in 2006. Mr. Oren wrote that the price paid by Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak “can be interpreted only in a context that goes beyond that of the Gilad Schalit deal.”

He noted that Israeli leaders in the past have shown a readiness to absorb “a small loss” in order to attain a greater success, generally involving “some sort of military adventure.”

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Iran parliament to question Ahmadinejad over fraud

The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s parliament is set to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over an economic scandal and his polices after the required number of lawmakers signed a petition Sunday, the latest salvo in a long battle between the president and his rivals.

Ahmadinejad would be the first president to be hauled before the Iranian parliament, a serious blow to his standing in a the conflict involving the president, lawmakers and Iran’s powerful clerics.

At least 73 lawmakers signed the petition to question Ahmadinejad, just above one-quarter of the 290 members required by Iran’s constitution to call in a president.

Earlier the parliament found Ahmadinejad’s economics minister guilty in relation to a $2.6 billion fraud case, considered the largest in Iran’s history.

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U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

www.nytimes.com
US ArmyThe Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.

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