WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 – The nation’s hard-pressed health care system for veterans is facing a potential deluge of tens of thousands of soldiers returning from Iraq with serious mental health problems brought on by the stress and carnage of war, veterans’ advocates and military doctors say.

An Army study shows that about one in six soldiers in Iraq report symptoms of major depression, serious anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans. Because about one million American troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental health treatment could exceed 100,000.
Full Article: nytimes.com

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian oil group YUKOS has filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court in an attempt to stop Russia’s government from auctioning off its main production unit on Dec. 19, it said on Wednesday.

YUKOS has also asked the Houston court, which was due to convene later on Wednesday, to order Russia to arbitration so that it can press claims for billions of dollars in damages over a “campaign of illegal, discriminatory and disproportionate” tax claims.

The Russian authorities plan to auction Yuganskneftegaz, the crown jewel of fallen oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s business empire, in pursuit of $27 billion back-tax claims against YUKOS.

The auction’s starting price is $9 billion. Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion in what many see as a Kremlin drive to bring Russia’s super-rich business elite to heel and regain control over the “commanding heights” of the economy lost in the privatizations of the 1990s.
“The steps we took today were done as a last resort to preserve the rights of our shareholders, employees and customers,” YUKOS CEO Steven Theede said in a statement.

Russia’s State Property Fund said preparations for Sunday’s auction were going ahead as planned. State-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom is expected to win the contest and is lining up record financing for its bid.

“Our plans are unchanged because we evaluated all possible risks when we decided to bid for Yugansk,” said Alexander Stepanenko, a spokesman for Gazprom’s oil unit Gazpromneft.

The Texas court was due to hold an emergency hearing on YUKOS’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing at 11.15 a.m. (1715 GMT).

A source familiar with the filing said a ruling on whether to approve or deny a worldwide restraining order on the Yugansk sale could be made on Wednesday.

But lawyers — and even its main shareholder — were unsure the gambit would win YUKOS a stay of execution. Three of YUKOS’ independent directors quit on Wednesday, suggesting a possible board rift over the filing.

WORLDWIDE JURISDICTION

YUKOS was granted the hearing on its filing for Chapter 11 — designed to give firms breathing space to restructure — by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

The filing, obtained by Reuters, states that YUKOS’ current assets total $12.3 billion while its debts are $30.8 billion.

YUKOS argues that U.S. law has worldwide jurisdiction as it has major business dealings in Texas and Chief Financial Officer Bruce Misamore, who signed the filing, is now based there.

The last-ditch bid to stave off the breakup of Russia’s top oil exporting company won qualified backing from Khodorkovsky’s holding company, Menatep. “We support it,” said Menatep director Tim Osborne in London, adding: “I still think that the auction will go ahead and that it (Yugansk) will be sold at the price that everybody’s talking about in the press.”

The source familiar with the filing forecast two scenarios if the Houston court grants the restraining order: either the Russian authorities will ignore it, or they and the bidders will petition the court to overturn it.

If the court upholds the order, then bidders for Yugansk and their financiers could be sued in the U.S. courts to prevent the sale from completing, the source added.

“The Chapter 11 filing could faze the bidders. They may get nervous. It’s upping the stakes,” the source told Reuters.

Lawyers said the U.S. court would probably regard the case as within its jurisdiction. “Americans will take worldwide jurisdiction on very minimal grounds,” said Gabriel Moss, an insolvency and restructuring barrister in London.

But another lawyer said Russia would probably ride roughshod over any decision in favor of YUKOS.

“I don’t think they have a chance of freezing the asset sale process,” the lawyer said. “If YUKOS tried to freeze that process then the Russian government would step in, for example to nationalize the company.”

GAZPROM SEEN THE WINNER

YUKOS’ petition seeks to restrain the government, bidders and financiers from participating in the sale of Yugansk, which produces 60 percent of YUKOS’ 1.7 million barrels per day of oil.

Uncertainty over the auction’s outcome has led YUKOS — which pumps nearly a fifth of Russia’s oil — to be dropped from Russia’s January oil export schedules, stoking market concerns over possible supply disruptions.

Meanwhile Gazprom, the only declared bidder, is syndicating Russia’s largest ever loan facility of around 10 billion euros via ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Calyon, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and J.P. Morgan.

Once Russia’s largest listed firm, YUKOS is now worth less than $2 billion, down from a peak of over $40 billion last year.

Its shares slumped by 16 percent to 20.02 roubles ($0.72), their lowest since July 2000, triggering two suspensions of trade, before rallying to stand 1 percent down in late Moscow dealing. (Additional reporting by Tom Bergin and Gerard Wynn)

news.yahoo.com

Unbelievable on SO many levels. Add this flagrant attempt to violate Russian sovereignty with the farce in Ukraine and neo-con support and funding for ‘Chechyn Terrorists’ (Lord knows what they really are) and Putin looks less like an autocrat and more like somebody who is not about selling Russia off to the highest bidder.

By Dave Lindorff
What, I’d like to know, was the Democratic Party, which has demonstrated an uncanny ability to lose elections it should be able to win handily here in America, doing spending $40 million in U.S. taxpayers’ dollars “helping” people and organizations in other countries to compete in elections to overturn incumbent governments overseas?

It turns out that even as it was blowing the presidential election in the U.S., an arm of the Democratic Party, the so called National Democratic Institute, was busy over the last year spending tens of millions of dollars prov ided by the State Department to help the opposition in the Ukraine to challenge the government party in that former Soviet state. (A similar Republican Party organization, the Republican International Institute, was doing the same thing with more State Department money. ) Some of that help was itself of questionable legality, which is why it was all done covertly.
Full Article: counterpunch.org
The opposition party

By Larry Birns and Seth Delong
Since the de facto overthrow of the democratically-elected Aristide government on February 29 of 2004, the international community, along with the UN peacekeeping force, has either turned a blind eye on the human rights abuses perpetrated by interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s regime or, at best, showered favoritism on the hapless, extra-constitutional government. Much of the lawlessness now found in the country is due to the ill-trained and out-of-control police force, particularly when the peacekeepers tolerate brutal raids on pro-Aristide neighborhoods and on those calling for Aristide’s return to the country, as well as tolerating the Gestapo-like tactics of Latortue’s Justice Minister, Bernard Gousse.

The increasing violence being unleashed on the streets of Port-au-Prince and the squashing of political dissent by Gousse’s goons has ranged from the incarceration of Aristide supporters (including the country’s just-released and most highly revered priest, Father Gerard Jean-Juste, as well as former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, former Interior Minister Jocelerme Privert, Senator Yvon Feuille and former Deputy Rudy Herivaux) to shooting protestors in the street without even the pretense of professional restraint. For such abuses, among others, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) all along has refused to restore normal relations with Latortue, while the Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-Commission on Human Rights has condemned the ongoing abuses now occurring throughout Haiti with frightening regularity. As one international human rights monitor has observed, “The contrast between the Haitian government’s eagerness to prosecute former Aristide officials and its indifference to the abusive record of certain rebel leaders could not be more stark.”

Yet, despite the growing international condemnation of the Latortue government’s kid glove treatment of the country’s armed rebels–the same cabal that Secretary Powell originally described before the coup as “a gang of thugs”–neither the arbitrary actions of the armed ex-militias nor the repeated violations of due process perpetrated by Gousse have attracted the attention of MINUSTAH, the UN, or the denunciation of the international community.

Surprisingly, not even Annan’s personal representative in the country, the highly regarded Chilean diplomat Juan Gabriel Valdés, has vigorously condemned Latortue and his cronies. To the contrary, Annan and his aides have bestowed a modicum of undeserved political legitimacy on the new government by acquiescing, at every step, to Secretary Powell’s see-no-evil policy regarding the egregious excesses of the Latortue regime and its multiple sins of omission. Annan has shown little intent to protect the legitimacy of the constitutional process nor has he insisted that Aristide be accorded the respect due to a democratically-elected president. Annan also joined Powell in demanding that Aristide negotiate with the opposition (to which Aristide willingly agreed), thereby eventually hoodwinking the former President into exile. Nor did Annan raise questions regarding Aristide’s imposed successor, the expatriate Latortue, who later was to pathetically describe those who Powell earlier had labeled “thugs,” as “freedom fighters.” Of course, these were the same “freedom fighters” who terrorized the countryside during General Raoul Cedras’ 1991-1994 military regime, and were responsible for upwards of 5,000 civilian deaths.
Full Article: counterpunch.org

WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s trade deficit swelled to an all-time high of $55.5 billion in October as imports – including those from China – surged to the loftiest levels on record. Skyrocketing crude-oil prices also contributed to the yawning trade gap.

The latest snapshot of trade activity, reported by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, showed the country’s trade imbalance widening by a sizable 8.9 percent in October from the previous month – despite the fact that U.S. exports registered their best month ever on record.

The growth in imports, however, dwarfed the pace of exports in October, producing another bloated trade gap. The trade deficit was much bigger than the $52.4 billion imbalance economists were forecasting.

Imports of goods and services climbed to a record high of $153.5 billion in October, representing a 3.4 percent increase from September.

The United States’ politically sensitive trade deficit with China clocked a record $16.8 billion as imports flowing from the country posted all-time highs.

The Bush administration has been pressing China to let its currency, the yuan, be set in open markets. U.S. manufacturers claims Beijing’s currency policies give Chinese companies a big competitive advantage over U.S. companies.

Another factor in October’s trade deficit was surging prices for imported crude oil. The average price of crude oil soared to a record $41.79 a barrel – a whopping 11.1 percent increase from September’s price.

U.S. exports, meanwhile, rose by 0.6 percent in October from the previous month to a record $98.1 billion. Sales of U.S.-made industrial supplies to other countries totaled a record high of $18 billion. Exports of capital goods, including drilling equipment and airplanes, also gained ground.

The Bush administration believes the best way to handle the mushrooming trade deficits is by getting other countries to remove trade barriers and open their markets to U.S. businesses.

But Democrats and trade unions argue that the president’s free-trade policies aren’t working and have contributed to the migration of jobs overseas. Critics contend that trade deals ought to include stronger protections for workers and to protect the environment.

The previous record high U.S. trade deficit of $55.3 billion was recorded in June.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in a speech last month, warned that swollen trade deficits eventually could threaten the economy by souring foreign appetites to invest in the United States. Thus far, that hasn’t happened, but policy-makers can’t be complacent, he said.

Persistent concerns in Europe over the U.S. trade and budget deficits has been a key factor in the U.S. dollar’s recent slid – on several occasions to record lows – against the euro, the currency used by 12 countries.

The value of the dollar, which had already been weakening, helps U.S. exporters and manufacturers because it makes their goods and services cheaper and more competitive to foreign buyers.

Although the administration espouses a “strong dollar” policy, it hasn’t taken specific action to break the dollar’s decline. Private economists say that’s because the administration is fine with what has so far been a relatively orderly decline in the dollar.

America’s trade deficit with Canada grew to $5.6 billion in October, a 7.8 percent increase from September. The United State’s trade imbalance with Mexico surged by 15.4 percent to $4.4 billion in October as imports from the country hit record highs.

The United State’s trade deficit with oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, clocked a record $7.2 billion in October as imports from these countries hit all-time highs.

America’s deficit with Japan, however, narrowed in October to $5.9 billion as U.S. exports to Japan were the highest since March 2001.
apnews.myway.com

Pentagon officials said they will ask the Bush administration for an additional $80 billion in emergency funding to help pay costs of the military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, slightly higher than the $70 billion to $75 billion many on Capitol Hill had expected.

The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports Tuesday: “Senior Pentagon officials met to review and finalize the new budget request before sending it to the White House this week.

“The final White House request, which will be submitted to Congress early next year, would probably come in between $75 billion and $80 billion, pushing the total military costs, since the Iraq war began, to well over $230 billion. ‘The [Defense Department] request is on the higher side of our expectations,’ said an official involved in the process. ‘We are still sorting through it to figure out what the final number will be.'” Another “US official said the total Pentagon request would likely be in the $80 billion to $89 billion range.”
drudgereport.com

A deadly reversal

by George Monbiot
I hope that newspapers do not represent public opinion. If they do, it means that we consider the Home Secretary’s love affair more important than the resumption of the most deadly conflict since the second world war. On Sunday, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), already responsible for 3.8 million deaths, started again. If you missed it, you’re in good company.
The Rwandan army appears to have crossed back into north-eastern DRC. Rival factions of the Congolese army – some of them loyal to Rwanda – have started fighting each other. As usual, it’s the civilians who are being killed – and raped and tortured and forced to flee into the forest. Last week, before the fighting resumed, the International Rescue Committee reported that over 1,000 people a day are still dying from disease and malnutrition caused by the last conflict. Nearly half of them are children under five.

Rwanda has already invaded the DRC (or Zaire, as it used to be called), twice. In both cases it appeared to have justification. The Interahamwe militias who had killed 800,000 Rwandans fled there after the genocide in 1994. They were sheltered first by President Mobutu, then by President Kabila. They wanted to reinvade Rwanda and resume the genocide.

But after moving into the eastern DRC for the second time, in 1998, Rwanda more or less forgot about the genocidaires. It had found something more interesting: minerals. Better armed than the other forces in the region, the Rwandan army concentrated on seeking to monopolise the trade in diamonds and coltan. By 1999, according to a report for the UN security council, 80% of the Rwandan military budget – around $320m a year – was coming from minerals stolen from the DRC.

The six African armies that had been drawn into the conflict, their proxy militias and the government of the DRC started fighting a monumental turf war over the mines. Millions of people fled their homes. Thousands were captured and forced to mine or to work as prostitutes. Rwanda’s operation was by far the most efficient. It was controlled directly from the capital, Kigali, according to Amnesty International. Even after 2002, when the armies officially withdrew, the Rwandan government left its men in the eastern DRC to continue running the mines. The latest invasion appears to be a thinly-disguised attempt to deal with the militias which threaten its lucrative business.

Though we are rightly exercised about the atrocities in Darfur, it is hard to find anyone who gives a damn about the Congo.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

All computer records in PM’s office destroyed, says Zapatero

Spain’s former prime minister José María Aznar wiped all computer records at his office referring to the March 11 Madrid train bombings and the rest of his period of government, his successor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said yesterday.
Mr Zapatero told a parliamentary commission on the bombings that he had no idea whether records were made of crisis meetings held at the prime minister’s office after the attacks that killed 191 people, as computer hard-drives and security copies were wiped clean.

“There was nothing, absolutely nothing… everything had been wiped,” Mr Zapatero told a raucous session of the parliamentary commission. “There is nothing from March 11 to March 14 in the prime minister’s office.”

Mr Zapatero, whose Socialists won a surprise election victory three days after the bombings, said the incoming government had been left the bill for the erasing.

The newspaper El País reported yesterday that the job cost €12,000 (£8,200) and included erasing all email records.

The only records handed to the incoming government were paper documents, the newspaper reported.

Mr Zapatero accused Mr Aznar’s conservative People’s party government of having tried to fool Spaniards into believing the armed Basque group Eta, not radical Islamists, carried out the attacks. “It was massive deceit,” he said.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

Bulldozers go in as expansion of settlements continues

Sharif Omar has been waiting two years for the bulldozers, ever since Israel’s steel and barbed wire “security fence” carved its way between his village and its land. Last week the excavators and diggers finally arrived on the outskirts of Jayyous to lay the foundations for an expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Zufim, fulfilling the fears and warnings of its Palestinian neighbours.
The bulldozers were preparing the ground for hundreds of new homes, despite the Israeli government’s claim that it is not expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Like other building work along the route of the barrier, it seems to be an attempt to ensure that the land between the fence and the 1967 border remains in Israeli hands in any final agreement with the Palestinians.

“When they built the fence, we said they would use it to build a much bigger settlement, and they would take our land to do it,” said Mr Omar, whose olive and citrus groves are now encircled. “It is very clear to us, they are planning to confiscate all of our land and drive us from here. They came and told us to finish harvesting because they were going to begin building 80 houses. They are beginning with my neighbour’s land but if they do it there they will do it on mine.”

At least five other sites along the barrier have settlement work in progress. Israeli human rights groups say the government appears to be racing to fill in the gap between the barrier and the Israeli border before a US team arrives next year to mark out the final limits of settlement expansion.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk

by Douglas Lummis
The U.S. Military, the newspapers tell us, has conquered Fallujah. But here you must read the news carefully. It seems that the U.S. military is in control of (most of) the area of Fallujah, and of (what is left of) its buildings, but not of its people. The people, some 300,000 of them, are outside the city, waiting to go home.

So the U.S. Military is facing a dilemma. The point of the Fallujah operation was to make it possible to hold elections in January. To carry out elections in Fallujah, the U.S. Military will have let Fallujah’s residents return home. But what if, after they return home, they start fighting against the U.S. occupation, as they did before?

According to a December 5 article by Ann Barnard in the Boston Globe, the U.S. military has devised a plan to solve this dilemma. They are going to “funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans.” Then they will give each person a nametag, which they will be required to wear at all times. Presumably people not wearing nametags will be in danger of being seen as guerrilla fighters, and shot.

The Military also wants to organize all Fallujan men into “military-style battalions”, and force them to work, cleaning up and rebuilding the destroyed city.

It seems the U.S. military is still under the illusion that in Fallujah there are two types of people, “terrorists” and “ordinary residents”. So if you can distinguish which is which, and allow only the “ordinary residents”, clearly marked, back into the city, peace will be achieved. But when the “ordinary residents” return to the city, some of them will surely resume guerrilla operations ­ especially after they see what has been done to their homes.

To prevent this, they will be organized into work battalions, probably under U.S. or Iraqi military commanders.

So this is the point to which these American Bringers-Of-Democracy have been driven to? Where can we find a parallel for the kind of social organization they are planning? In German history, the concentration camp. In U.S. history, the relocation centers of World War II. In Russian history, the gulag.
Full Article: counterpunch.org

How much will be too much? There seems no end to how horrific this all is.