"The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!" - Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) -

Monday, June 30, 2008

Hersh: Congress Agreed to Bush Request to Fund Major Escalation in Secret Operations Against Iran


http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/30/hersh_congress_agreed_to_bush_request


Congressional leaders agreed to a request from President Bush last year to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing Iran’s leadership, according to a new article by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine. The operations were set out in a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which, by law, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders. The plan allowed up to $400 million in covert spending for activities ranging from supporting dissident groups to spying on Iran’s nuclear program. Hersh joins us from Washington DC.


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh?printable=true


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/29/seymour-hersh-exposes-new_n_109818.html


Seymour Hersh Exposes New US Covert Operations In Iran (VIDEO)


http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/06/30/544/preparing-to-battle-iran-or-overthrow-it/


http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact

Media Release from the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality


PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 Phone: 804.644.5834

E-mail: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com Web: www.DefendersFJE.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2008

MEDIA CONTACTS: Ana Edwards (804-517-4049) and Phil Wilayto (804-247-3731)

July 3 Richmond program to addressthreat of war against Iran


A public program titled “Iran: Stopping the next war before it starts,” is to be held July 3, 2008, in Richmond, Va. The date is the 20 th anniversary of the day a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf, costing the lives of nearly 300 men, women and children.


The program, sponsored by the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St., Richmond, VA 23223. The program is free. Child care will be provided and light refreshments will be served.


Members and friends of the Defenders will read a letter by Iranian Capt. Habib Ahmadzadeh to U.S. Capt. Will Rogers, commander of the USS Vincennes, the ship that shot down Iran Airbus 655. The U.S. government maintained the shooting was a mistake – and then awarded a medal to Capt. Rogers. Capt. Ahmadzadeh, writing as one military officer to another, asks a series of pointed questions about how such a disaster could have happened.


The program will also include a showing of the documentary film “Bam 6.6” by Iranian-born director Jahangir Golestan-Parast. The film tells the story of the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that in 2003 leveled the ancient city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 40,000 people. The disaster and the heroic rescue efforts that followed – including by members of the Virginia Task Force Rescue Team – are seen through the eyes of two U.S tourists, Tobb Dell'Orro and his Jewish-American fiancee, Adele Freedman. The film strips away cultural and religious differences to reveal the deep humanity of the Iranian people.


The Defenders are a community organization affiliated with the Virginia Anti-War Network. In July 2007, members of the Defenders and VAWN organized a five-person People's Peace Delegation to Iran, which toured the country for 11 days, meeting with students, veterans, peace activists, clerics, working people and the country's vice president in charge of tourism. During one of these meetings, Capt. Ahmadzadeh asked the delegation to help publicize his letter to Capt. Rogers, in the hope that it would encourage a better understanding between the U.S and Iranian peoples.


The program will be chaired by Ana Edwards, chair of the the Defenders' Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Edwards' opening remarks will include a report on the current efforts to reclaim Richmond's long-neglected “Burial Ground for Negroes.” Richmond's oldest Black cemetery now lies abandoned under a downtown parking lot recently acquired by Virginia Commonwealth University.


The group reading of Capt. Ahmadzadeh's letter will be presented by Phil Wilayto, editor of The Richmond Defender newspaper and organizer of the People's Peace Delegation to Iran. Wilayto is to be interviewed July 2 by Press TV, the Iranian English-language television channel.


The film “Bam 6.6” will be introduced by Rostam Pourzal, U.S. president of the Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII), a VAWN affiliate. Pourzal is a frequent commentator in the national and international media on Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations.


For more information, please contact the Defenders at (804) 644-5834 or by e-mail at DefendersFJE@hotmail.org


To post to this group, send email to defenders-announcements@googlegroups.com

Media Release from the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality


PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 Phone: 804.644.5834


E-mail: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com Web: www.DefendersFJE.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2008


MEDIA CONTACTS: Ana Edwards (804-517-4049) and Phil Wilayto (804-247-3731)

July 3 Richmond program to addressthreat of war against Iran


A public program titled “Iran: Stopping the next war before it starts,” is to be held July 3, 2008, in Richmond, Va. The date is the 20th anniversary of the day a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf, costing the lives of nearly 300 men, women and children.


The program, sponsored by the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St., Richmond, VA 23223. The program is free. Child care will be provided and light refreshments will be served.


Members and friends of the Defenders will read a letter by Iranian Capt. Habib Ahmadzadeh to U.S. Capt. Will Rogers, commander of the USS Vincennes, the ship that shot down Iran Airbus 655. The U.S. government maintained the shooting was a mistake – and then awarded a medal to Capt. Rogers. Capt. Ahmadzadeh, writing as one military officer to another, asks a series of pointed questions about how such a disaster could have happened.


The program will also include a showing of the documentary film “Bam 6.6” by Iranian-born director Jahangir Golestan-Parast. The film tells the story of the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that in 2003 leveled the ancient city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 40,000 people. The disaster and the heroic rescue efforts that followed – including by members of the Virginia Task Force Rescue Team – are seen through the eyes of two U.S tourists, Tobb Dell'Orro and his Jewish-American fiancee, Adele Freedman. The film strips away cultural and religious differences to reveal the deep humanity of the Iranian people.


The Defenders are a community organization affiliated with the Virginia Anti-War Network. In July 2007, members of the Defenders and VAWN organized a five-person People's Peace Delegation to Iran, which toured the country for 11 days, meeting with students, veterans, peace activists, clerics, working people and the country's vice president in charge of tourism. During one of these meetings, Capt. Ahmadzadeh asked the delegation to help publicize his letter to Capt. Rogers, in the hope that it would encourage a better understanding between the U.S and Iranian peoples.


The program will be chaired by Ana Edwards, chair of the the Defenders' Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Edwards' opening remarks will include a report on the current efforts to reclaim Richmond's long-neglected “Burial Ground for Negroes.” Richmond's oldest Black cemetery now lies abandoned under a downtown parking lot recently acquired by Virginia Commonwealth University.


The group reading of Capt. Ahmadzadeh's letter will be presented by Phil Wilayto, editor of The Richmond Defender newspaper and organizer of the People's Peace Delegation to Iran. Wilayto is to be interviewed July 2 by Press TV, the Iranian English-language television channel.


The film “Bam 6.6” will be introduced by Rostam Pourzal, U.S. president of the Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII), a VAWN affiliate. Pourzal is a frequent commentator in the national and international media on Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations.


For more information, please contact the Defenders at (804) 644-5834 or by e-mail at DefendersFJE@hotmail.org


To post to this group, send email to defenders-announcements@googlegroups.com



News, Views and Democrats Confused


Iran-Contra's 'Lost Chapter'


http://www.consortiumnews.com/

By Robert Parry (A Special Report) June 30, 2008


As historians ponder George W. Bush’s disastrous presidency, they may wonder how Republicans perfected a propaganda system that could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs.


To understand this extraordinary development, historians might want to look back at the 1980s and examine the Iran-Contra scandal’s “lost chapter,” a narrative describing how Ronald Reagan’s administration brought CIA tactics to bear domestically to reshape the way Americans perceived the world.


That chapter – which we are publishing here for the first time – was “lost” because Republicans on the congressional Iran-Contra investigation waged a rear-guard fight that traded elimination of the chapter’s key findings for the votes of three moderate GOP senators, giving the final report a patina of bipartisanship.


Under that compromise, a few segments of the draft chapter were inserted in the final report’s Executive Summary and in another section on White House private fundraising, but the chapter’s conclusions and its detailed account of how the “perception management” operation worked ended up on the editing room floor.


The American people thus were spared the chapter’s troubling finding: that the Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council…..


It Was Oil, All Along

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
June 27, 2008


Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction.


But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be....the bottom line. It is about oil.



Alan Greenspan said so last fall. The former chairman of the Federal Reserve, safely out of office, confessed in his memoir, “…Everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”


He elaborated in an interview with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, "If Saddam Hussein had been head of Iraq and there was no oil under those sands, our response to him would not have been as strong as it was in the first Gulf War."



Remember, also, that soon after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld’s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told the press that war was our only strategic choice.


“We had virtually no economic options with Iraq,” he explained, “because the country floats on a sea of oil.”…..


Defending the President as Tyrant

By Robert Parry
June 27, 2008


All over the world down through history, political leaders who have engaged in torture and other grotesque crimes of state have justified their actions as necessary to protect their governments or their people or themselves.


It was true when England’s King Edward I had William Wallace – “Braveheart” – drawn and quartered in 1305 for resisting the crown’s rule in Scotland, and a gruesome death was what King George III foresaw for America’s Founding Fathers in 1776 when they stood up to his abuses in the Colonies.


Kings and tyrants often inflicted special pain on people they viewed as challenging their authority and – at such times – they wiped away the rules of justice. But the United States was supposed to be different.


Indeed, reaction to tyrannical monarchs was what compelled the Founders to establish a government of laws, not men, based on “unalienable rights” for all mankind, including protection against arbitrary detention and prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”


Which is why it was stunning to watch the June 26 hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution as two representatives of George W. Bush’s presidency responded with disdain when pressed on the administration’s extraordinary vision of an all-powerful Executive operating without legal limits.


While Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington treated the committee Democrats with haughty contempt, former State Department lawyer John Yoo expressed the ultimate arrogance of power with his muddled responses and evasions of direct questions….


Bush 'Torture' Lawyers Duck Questions

By Jason Leopold
June 27, 2008


Mixing haughty disdain with semantic quibbling, two key legal architects behind George W. Bush’s “war on terror” tactics brushed aside congressional questions about how the administration fashioned its harsh interrogation policies that human rights experts say crossed the line into torture.


Former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo and Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington also downplayed their roles in formulating the theories of presidential power that gave Bush wide latitude to order that detainees be subjected to painful treatment to break them down.


Yoo, who is now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, insisted that he only drafted the legal memos – from his post as a deputy in the Justice Department’s powerful Office of Legal Counsel – and that other officials decided what interrogation techniques were permissible.


“Decisions about interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay were made by the Defense Department,” said Yoo in Thursday’s testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.


But Yoo appears to have been splitting hairs. While it may be true that higher-ups in the Bush administration, including President Bush, had greater responsibility for approving the techniques, Yoo was not just the detached legal scholar that he portrayed at the hearing.


In his 2006 book, War by Other Means: An Insider’s Account on the War On Terror, he described his participation in meetings that helped develop the controversial policies for the treatment of detainees.


For instance, Yoo wrote about a trip he took to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with other senior administration officials to observe interrogations and to join in discussions about specific interrogation methods.



At Thursday’s hearing, Addington, who was Vice President Cheney’s legal counsel at the time of the administration’s internal torture debate, also disputed some of the press reports that depicted him as the mastermind behind Bush’s imperial presidency……


Top Dems Hand Bush Key Victories

By Jason Leopold
June 21, 2008


In November 2006 when Democrats won control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington.


“People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006.



But Pelosi, who became House Speaker, never managed to exact the change she promised, culminating in what some progressives have termed the “twin sell-outs” of this past week.



House Democratic leaders gave the Bush administration sweeping new domestic spying powers (including immunization of telecom companies that participated in possibly illegal surveillance of American citizens) and agreed to further fund the occupation of Iraq with a promise to the White House that the final bill would not include benchmarks or timetables for withdrawal.



The Senate is expected to vote on both bills next week with the apparent Democratic hope that the divisive issues won’t pop up during the presidential campaign in the fall. President Bush said he will sign both pieces of legislation when they reach his desk…..


Democrats Legalize Bush's Crimes

By Robert Parry
June 20, 2008


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap “compromise” is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.


In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush’s theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.


So, why should anyone assume that the new legislative edict demanding that the President obey the law will get any more respect than the old one, which established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 as the “exclusive” means for authorizing electronic spying?


It wasn’t that Bush and his team didn’t understand the old law’s language; they simply believed they could violate the law without consequence, under the radical theory that at a time of war – even one as vaguely defined as the “war on terror” – the President’s powers trump all laws as well as the constitutional rights of citizens.


Essentially, Bush was betting that even if his warrantless wiretap program was disclosed – as it was in December 2005 – that he could trust his Republican congressional allies to protect him and could count on most Democrats not to have the guts to challenge him.


His bet proved to be a smart one. After the New York Times revealed the warrantless wiretaps 2½ years ago, Congress took no steps to hold Bush accountable. Before the 2006 elections, Pelosi declared that Bush’s impeachment was “off the table.”


Then, on the eve of the August 2007 recess, the Democratic-controlled Congress was stampeded into passing the “Protect America Act,” which effectively legalized what Bush had already done and expanded his spying powers even more……


The Latest “Maverick Liberal”, Steny Hoyer, Bravely Dared To Fall On The Sword Before His Peers To Get Democrats To Embrace Telecom Immunity


Thank Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, Their (So-Called) “New Democratic Congress, And Of COURSE, The Republicans For Expanding The Powers Of The Executive Branch And The Exponential Growth Of Our Oligarchical Police State In General.


Wiretapping by your phone company is just A-Okay. That is, as long as their huge teams of lawers agree to do so just because the illegal order to comply comes on a piece of paper with a huge “Love, Dubya” is displayed prominently at the bottom of it. At least, that’s what the gutless, so-called, “New Democratic Congress”, led by the latest “Johnny Come Lately” of the “Maverick Liberal” crowd, House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer says.


“Hey, we can’t blame these helpless, clueless telecoms!”, said our so-called “representatives”. “They, and their huge teams of lawyers didn’t realize they were breaking the law by just trying to hook Brutha Bush and Shotgun Cheney UP when they sent a note telling them they thought it might be possible your Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Billy-Bob were them terr’ist-types, so let ‘em off’n the hook!”, screamed Steny Hoyer and co-hort, Nancy Pelosi, then BANG — the deal was DONE. Completely unconstitutional, of course — but DONE…


First, let’s look at the right-wing Politico recap — some “snips”:


How Hoyer got the deal done…..


Netroots Group Raises $300,000 for Campaign Against Hoyer And FISA Rewrite



Steny Hoyer FISA Ad To Run in Washington Post



Blue America PAC, a liberal online group, has raised more than $310,000 to oppose the rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and to target House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).


"After [former Rep.] Dick [Gephardt] (D-Mo.), former Democratic House Leader, betrayed the majority of House Democrats and plotted with [President] Bush, [Vice President] Cheney and some Blue Dogs to thwart the will of the majority and rubber stamp Bush’s decision to attack and occupy Iraq, he was forced out of his role as Democratic Leader," writes the liberal group on its ActBlue fundraising page. "Steny Hoyer deserves the exact same fate."


The group, which includes blogger Glenn Greenwald, has already run ads opposing Hoyer and Blue Dog Democrats who supported versions of FISA that included retroactive immunity for telecom companies that participated in the White House domestic wiretapping program.


Below is a newspaper ad paid for by Blue America that goes after Hoyer. The group is also looking at running ads against Reps. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.), who also supported versions of FISA with telecom immunity.


Hey, Here’s A Great Idea! Let’s Elect A Man To The Presidency Who Admits He Can’t Remember The Last Time He Had To Level Himself To Pumping His Own Gasoline! John McBush III





While A Nation Of Sheep Tremble In Their Sleep; It’s Happening Again and People are not listening!

Street action is coming.


http://www.recreate68.com/


http://www.midnightspecial.net/


http://www.mypopuli.com/


http://www.myspace.com/unconventionaldenver


http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=197237766


I have repeatedly reminded you that the abuse the Vietnam Vets feel came about when hate and frustration grew so intense that they became the target of the resistance right along with a government deaf to the voice, views and wisdom of the people; and then things turned really ugly. The Democratic Convention has not begun and the ugly head of that venom has appeared in Denver. Do not ever say that I did not warn you! And don’t tell it can’t happen again!


“Recently, there have been local incidents in which military personnel have been verbally assaulted while commuting on the Metro. Uniformed members have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting Anti-war sentiments and using racial slurs against minorities.


In one instance, a member was followed onto the platform by an individual who continued to berate her as she exited the metro station. Thus far, these incidents have occurred in the vicinity of the Reagan National Airport and Eisenhower Ave metro stations on the yellow line, however, military members should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times while in mass transit.


Should you be approached by any individuals expressing anti-government/anti-war sentiments, or any other types of direct verbal assault, immediately notify your local police jurisdiction. If riding metro, exit the train at the next stop, distance yourself from the individual, and notify the Metro Transit Police Department.


Here are a few friendly reminders of personal protective measures that can help you to stay safe:


· If possible, do not commute in uniform (military members)


· Do not display DoD building passes, “hot cards”, or personal identification in open view outside of the workplace -Do not discuss specifics about your occupation to outside solicitors


· Always try to remain in well lit, well populated train cars if traveling via metro -Be vigilant at all times!”


Noam Chomsky on 1968 http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2008/05/iraq-war-chomsky-1968-vietnam

And Back To More Bushit!


Amid Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan

But more than four dozen interviews in Washington and Pakistan tell another story. American intelligence officials say that the Qaeda hunt in Pakistan, code-named Operation Cannonball by the C.I.A. in 2006, was often undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the C.I.A., including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas.


Inside the C.I.A., the fights included clashes between the agency’s outposts in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad. There were also battles between field officers and the Counterterrorist Center at C.I.A. headquarters, whose preference for carrying out raids remotely, via Predator missile strikes, was derided by officers in the Islamabad station as the work of “boys with toys.


CFP: New York Times again exposes “highly classified Pentagon order”

Operation Cannonball... At 10:02 www.nytimes.com posted the Operation Cannonball... was the code name given to the Al Qaeda hunt in story on the Internet.

www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3724 - 6 hours ago


http://mediamatters.org/items/200806270007?f=h_clips


Crowley (This Broad Is A Coulter Fellow Traveler Nut!) falsely claimed Obama "stole" Ahmadinejad's campaign slogan


Summary: On The Laura Ingraham Show, Monica Crowley claimed that Sen. Barack Obama "lifted his campaign line 'Yes, we can' from the recent presidential campaign of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." Crowley claimed that Ahmadinejad used the slogan "We can." In fact, Obama reportedly used the phrase "Yes, we can" during his 2004 Senate campaign -- a full year before Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005.

The Facts From Ross Perot : Tanking; Can You Say Depression?



Why this web site now? Because we are running out of time.

The American people must wake up and face the reality that promises made in the past will soon bankrupt this nation. These problems are explained in an easy-to-understand chart presentation.


Soros: Financial Crisis Stems from 'Super-Bubble'


Buffett: I don't need 15 houses. Owning real estate doesn't mean much to me. I don't like to think about things like that. I don't need 12 boats, or even the world's largest boat with a crew of 80. I'd have to take care of them, to worry about them. I get a lot more fun out of life without all the bells and whistles.



Bloomberg.com: U.S.

Jun 26, 2008 ... June 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, ...
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBzD.V1iluuA&refer=news -

9 in 10 see rising gas prices causing family hardship


By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) — Four dollar a gallon gas has stolen a beach vacation in South Carolina from Julie Jacobs' family and exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford. Phil English had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup.


Like a plague that does not discriminate by economic class, race or age, soaring gas prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half year, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll said Monday.


Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.


As the price has spiraled upward so, too, has the public's ire. (MORE…)


Oil prices pass $143 a barrel


Oil prices surged above $143 a barrel for the first time ever Monday, as a weaker dollar spurred investors to seek refuge in dollar-denominated oil futures to hedge against inflation.


"The main factors behind the rise today are the U.S. dollar remains fragile and geopolitical tensions, particularly surrounding Iran," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "That's unsettling for the oil market."


The European Central Bank may raise interest rates at its next meeting on Thursday, a move that would help strengthen the euro against the dollar, Moore said.


Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose $3.46 to $143.67 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, by midday in Europe.


On Friday, crude futures spiked to a record $142.99 a barrel in New York before closing at $140.21.


In London, Brent crude futures rose $2.87 to $143.18 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.


Analysts said daily trading volumes for Nymex oil would probably continue last week's trend and stay on the light side, leading to higher volatility during the trading sessions.


"We would not expect liquidity to be much better this week, as it will be a short trading week due to the July 4 weekend," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland said in a research note.


Worries about tight oil supplies and growing global demand are also major factors in the doubling of oil prices since last year, Moore said.


Traders were digesting reported comments from the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who warned that if his country is attacked, Tehran would strike back by barraging Israel with missiles. In a report published Saturday in the conservative Jam-e-Jam newspaper, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said that if Iran were provoked, it would also move to control a key oil passageway in the Gulf.


Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter and about 60 percent of the world's oil passes through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.


The report comes after the disclosure of a recent Israeli military exercise over the Mediterranean Sea that was seen as sending a message to Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.


The dollar has weakened on expectations the Federal Reserve Board won't soon raise interest rates as the U.S. economy struggles with low growth. The Fed left its benchmark rate unchanged last week.


The dollar dipped to 105.15 yen on Monday from 106.12 late Friday, while the euro was slightly higher at $1.5813.


"ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet's hawkish stance (on) inflation" could mean the dollar may be headed for further weakness against the euro "and that's not bearish for oil," said The Schork Report edited by U.S. analyst and trader Stephen Schork.


A falling U.S. stock market has also led investors to seek higher-yielding investments such as oil and other commodities. The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years — and is down nearly 20 percent since its peak in October.


In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 6.44 cents to $3.9710 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices rose 5.08 cents to $3.5520 a gallon. Natural gas futures increased 15.2 cents to $13.35 per 1,000 cubic feet.


Full Coverage: Oil and Gas





















http://www.tikkun.org/magazine

Bush, oil executives, criminally liable for Iraq War, says Congressman
By PatriotG
The Democratic Congressman, who has yet to endorse Barack Obama for the presidential election, should also be in the news for his recent efforts to impeach President George W. Bush, however again the media is almost completely silent on ...
Ron Paul Forums - http://www.ronpaulforums.com


Prejudice
By Barbara Friedland
Impeach Bush. Villagers, come with your torches for Dick Cheney. Let's face it, the so called Vice President, who wields more power than anyone in the Western World, could swathe himself in donkeys and Obama buttons, and he would still ...
barbara friedland - http://barbarafriedland.typepad.com/barbarafriedland/


Vidal: Bush ended US as a republic
By willyloman
He also criticized the House of Representatives for not impeaching President Bush, over a wide array of subjects such as disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s covert status. Vidal did however single out Rep. ...
American Everyman - http://willyloman.wordpress.com


It's Coming Folks!


http://www.votestrike.com/


http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1801

End Post…..