Daily Times – Former British premier Tony Blair warned in an interview on Wednesday that the international community may have ‘no alternative’ to taking military action against Iran if it develops a nuclear weapon. “I am saying that I think it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapons capability and I think we have got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary militarily,” he said in extracts pre-released by the BBC from an interview to publicise his memoirs. “I think there is no alternative to that if they continue to develop nuclear weapons. They need to get that message loud and clear.” Read Article
Reuters – North Korea would answer any attack on it with a nuclear “holy war,” the country’s ambassador to Cuba said, according to official Chinese media, while the North’s leader Kim Jong-il appeared to be visiting China. Read Article
Al Bawaba – There are growing fears in the Gulf region of an imminent clash with Iran following the launch of Bushehr nuclear facility. Although Western circles downplay the importance of the facility to Iran’s efforts to develop atomic bombs, the Arab states in the Gulf region believe the potential of military action against Iran exists. The ongoing threats towards Iran by Tel Aviv and Washington come with practical preparations for a possible war such as the deployment of Patriot missiles in Kuwait. Read Article
Press TV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spends the time he was supposed to meet with the visiting head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, on vacation. Netanyahu’s office cancelled the meeting, saying “he would speak on the telephone to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] Yukiya Amano later this week,” Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported on Tuesday. The IAEA director general is on his first visit to Israel, having asked to hold talks with the premier months ago Read Article
Daily Telegraph – Iran will begin building its third uranium enrichment plant in early 2011, a top official said, defying world powers who have imposed new sanctions on Tehran for pursuing the sensitive nuclear work. Read Article
NPR-Environmentalists warned this week that wildfires in Russia were burning forests near Chernobyl, sending radioactive smoke downwind. Russian officials immediately denied that anyone was in danger, but a group of international scientists has been studying the risks and says the danger is real -Read Article
Daily Mirror – Energy Secretary Chris Huhne was accused last night of an astonishing U-turn after promising new nuclear power stations – despite being an anti-nuclear campaigner. The Lib Dem minister said yesterday potential sites had been identified and power should be on stream by 2018. He added that the locations are places where “we have previously had nuclear power stations and where the local people are very keen” to have new ones. The remarks stunned many in Westminster because Mr Huhne was one of the most high-profile anti-nuclear campaigners when he was in opposition. Read Article
If I ever needed a reminder as to why all the team at Open Your Eyes News willingly and voluntarily give up so much their valuable time for this project, I got it last night on Australian SBS TV’s “Dateline”.
Probably one of the most hard hitting pieces I have seen on mainstream media for many a year regarding the use and effects of Depleted Uranium in Iraq – a topic which we have been publicising regularly since we launched the site 3 years ago. If you missed it, you can see it & read about it HERE
Of particular note was how the Doctors were so reticent to speak about the causes of the child defects after “instructions” from the Iraqi Health Ministry; George Negus’ reaction after the article (a veteran journalist who has seen a fair few horrible things in his 40 years of reporting); and the fact that the Hospital Director was shot dead soon after the filming (coincidence?)
There are far too few out there who are fighting against the tide of obfuscating, disinformation and ‘blissful’ ignorance, and whatever we do will be just a drop in the ocean, but this reminded me exactly why we must all keep trying.
James Fairbairn, Editor & Co-Founder, Open Your Eyes News
SBS – The number of babies born with severe deformities and children developing leukaemia is rising dramatically in parts of Iraq. US forces used Depleted Uranium weapons to attack the city, which locals say has left them with this devastating legacy. One report even says the number of such illnesses in Falluja is higher than that recorded after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read Article
Jerusalem Post – There is wide support in Congress for using all means to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, “through diplomatic and economic sanctions if we possibly can, through military actions if we must,” visiting US Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said Wednesday in Jerusalem. Lieberman, flanked at a Jerusalem press conference by his senate colleagues John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), used very tough language, saying the words “military action” in regards to stopping Iran’s nuclear program. Most US officials opt to tiptoe around the subject, saying “no options are off the table.” Lieberman said that “a certain trumpet needs to sounded here for the Iranian regime to hear.” Read Article
The Guardian – Russia will begin to load fuel into the reactor at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power station next week, marking the start of its launch after years of delay, Moscow said today. Russian and Iranian specialists are to begin loading uranium-packed fuel rods into the reactor on 21 August, a process that will take about two to three weeks. This will be a key step towards starting up the reactor, although it will not be considered operational from that date. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – International sanctions against Iran have helped strengthen Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government and suppress the opposition, according to one of the country’s most prominent reformists. Read Article
Associated Press – An Israeli nuclear whistleblower who spent 18 years behind bars was released from jail Sunday after serving an additional three months for violating his release terms. Mordechai Vanunu was a technician at Israel’s top-secret nuclear reactor next to the desert town of Dimona. In 1986 he carried out of the country hundreds of pictures he took of the interior of the reactor and gave them to the London Sunday Times. Read Article
The Hindu – On August 6, 1945, World War II took a sudden, explosive turn in Hiroshima. About 140,000 people were killed or died within months after the U.S. dropped the nuclear bomb “Little Boy” on the Japanese city. Hiroshima now makes a new beginning as it marks its biggest memorial yet with representatives from 74 countries, including the U.S Read Article
For a greater understanding of the use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima read our FEATURE PAGE
Daily Mail – Breast cancer screening may be doing more harm than good, a study suggests. The review found 259 women would have to be screened to prevent one death – and many women would be wrongly diagnosed with life-threatening disease and undergo unnecessary treatment as a result. The latest research in the British Medical Journal will fuel continuing controversy over the NHS screening programme, which critics claim is not based on robust evidence. Read article
On Saturday 31 July, the editor of www.OpenYourEyesNews.com, James Fairbairn, made a guest appearance on ABC720 Radio in Perth, Western Australia to discuss with host, James Lush, some of the key news events of recent days. The interview covered the following:
- Iraq
- Deforestation
- Church Sex Abuse Allegations
Check out our latest interview on our new Podcast channel and please subscribe to keep up to date with future episodes of OpenYourEyesNews
AP – The U.S. military has a plan to attack Iran, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday, although he thinks a military strike is probably a bad idea. Not long after Adm. Mike Mullen’s aired on a Sunday talk show, the deputy chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was quoted as saying there would be a strong Iranian response should the U.S. take military action against his country. Read Article
NY Times – When Alain Reyes’s hair suddenly fell out in a freakish band circling his head, he was not the only one worried about his health. His co-workers at a shipping company avoided him, and his boss sent him home, fearing he had a contagious disease. Only later would Mr. Reyes learn what had caused him so much physical and emotional grief: he had received a radiation overdose during a test for a stroke at a hospital in Glendale, Calif. Read article
Related article
Press TV – US authorities and senior Israeli officials have held a meeting in Washington to discuss Iran and the latest sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic, a US official says. “As a matter of fact, this afternoon we have a meeting with the senior Israeli team to talk about Iran and to talk about sanctions,” AFP reported Robert Einhorn, a US State Department adviser, as saying on Thursday. Read Article
Haaretz – A former CIA director says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program. Michael Hayden, a CIA chief under President George W. Bush, said that during his tenure “a strike was way down the list of options.” But he tells CNN’s State of the Union that such action now “seems inexorable.” Read Article
Tehran Times – The Iraqi city of Fallujah continues to suffer the ghastly consequences of a U.S. military onslaught in late 2004. According to the authors of a new study, “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,” the people of Fallujah are experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after those Japanese cities were incinerated by U.S. atomic bomb strikes in 1945. The assault on Fallujah, a city located 43 miles west of Baghdad, was one of the most horrific war crimes of our time. Read article
Russia Today – Reports have emerged that the UK used depleted uranium weapons during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A UK defense official has reportedly admitted using highly controversial ammunition. “UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003,” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons Thursday Read Article
Press TV – UK defense secretary says American and British forces used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. “UK forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003,” UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on Thursday, the Kuwait News Agency reported. The announcement came after a joint study by the environment, health and science ministries in Iraq said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years. More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels of radiation and dioxins. Read Article
Daily Express – A FORMER pathologist today demands a full inquest into the death of nuclear weapons expert Dr David Kelly as the Sunday Express discloses fresh details of the mysterious theft of his dental records. As the family of Dr Kelly privately marked the seventh anniversary of his death yesterday, Dr Peter Fletcher urged Prime Minister David Cameron to order an inquest because the circumstances surrounding this tragic episode “stink”. Read Article
The Independent – Britain was taken to war in Iraq on the basis of “lies”, scaremongering and deliberate exaggeration, a former UK diplomat told the Iraq inquiry. Carne Ross claimed that Britain and the United States privately did not believe that Iraq’s weapons programmes posed a “substantial threat” before launching the 2003 invasion. Read Article
