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Afghans Overwhelmingly Want US Troops Out – and Soon

Source: Global Post

First the good news: U.S. forces are still more popular in Afghanistan than Osama bin Laden. Fully 6 percent of respondents in a new poll expressed a “very favorable” opinion of American troops, versus just 2 percent for the fugitive Al Qaeda leader.

To be fair, the United States scored much higher in the more grudging “somewhat favorable” category, outstripping the world’s most wanted man by 36 percent to just 4. But more than half of all Afghans — 55 percent — want U.S. forces out of their country, and the sooner the better. read more

What Makes Bernie Speak?

For Bernie Sanders, who has served in Congress for 20 years, his December 10 "mini-filibuster" was a continuation of essentially the same speech he’s been giving since he first emerged as a Vermont third party candidate in 1971. And the Senate speech, though it resonated with many people, doesn’t appear to have changed the outcome of the pending tax deal.

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Nigeria Files Charges Against Cheney in Halliburton Bribery Scheme

Source: Truthout

Dick Cheney is officially a wanted man.

The former vice president was indicted Tuesday by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crime Commission along with eight other current and former company executives, alleging that while he was chief executive of Halliburton he played a role in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials so the company could obtain a lucrative contract to build a liquefied natural gas facility in the country.

Halliburton and its one-time subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), were also charged. KBR, which also has handled lucrative US government support contracts for US troops in Iraq and elsewhere, was spun off from Halliburton in 2007 into a separate company. read more

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This case must not obscure what WikiLeaks has told us

Source: The Independent

Every one of us owes a debt to Julian Assange. Thanks to him, we now know that our governments are pursuing policies that place you and your family in considerably greater danger. Wikileaks has informed us they have secretly launched war on yet another Muslim country, sanctioned torture, kidnapped innocent people from the streets of free countries and intimidated the police into hushing it up, and covered up the killing of 15,000 civilians – five times the number killed on 9/11. Each one of these acts has increased the number of jihadis. We can only change these policies if we know about them – and Assange has given us the black-and-white proof. read more