We saw in a blog post a few weeks ago that up to 15 civilians in Laghman were killed in a ground forces operation apparently carried out under NATO command. NATO itself, after initial denials, appeared to acknowledge civilian casualties, but was characteristically vague about it. Now, according to the article below, it seems that the attack-cum-massacre was carried out at night and, according to locals, perpetrated by US special forces on the ground.

In addition to the “global warming” rip-off, you can add another huge international racketeering operation—the H1N1 “pandemic” of 2009. Both of these ploys were designed to fleece the western nations of billions, possibly trillions, of dollars. In the case of the H1N1 scam, the western governments have already coughed up billions of dollars for vaccines to prevent a bogus “pandemic.” That means that we, the taxpayers, have been ripped-off yet again. If class action lawsuits aren’t on the way, then they darn well should be. -The European nations have apparently not been paid off to the extent of the U.S. Congress, and have decided to look into things.

Is Israel preparing to attack with chemical weapons? "Israel to issue gas masks to population" "The only country in Israel's region currently believed to have access to a major chemical or biological weapons program is Israel itself".

Of the 44 Predator strikes carried out by the American drones in the tribal areas of Pakistan in 12 months of 2009, only five were able to hit their actual targets, killing five key Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, but at the cost of around 700 innocent civilian lives.

Iraq shocked as judge drops Blackwater charges - "so many innocent Iraqi people - young, students - were shot by someone who liked to shoot unarmed people." The Guardian: Iraq May Prosecute Blackwater After Feds Fail. NYT: "Why do they have the right to kill people? Is our blood so cheap?" asks a man who was shot in the hand by Blackwater. WPA: The latest UN findings on Iraq provide a devastating picture of torture, escalating civilian deaths and lawlessness that represents a damning indictment of US-led occupation. Three years after the illegal invasion, the violent activities of the US military and its allies in suppressing any opposition have been supplemented by a spiralling sectarian civil war. The Peninsula: Iraq won’t let Blackwater go scot-free.

The theme of our fancy inventions ultimately destroying us has been a favorite in fiction at least since Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” We can place alongside this a continuous succession of spectacular films built on visions of the end of the world. Such end-time fantasies must have a profound, persistent appeal in order to keep drawing wide-eyed crowds into movie theaters, as historically they have drawn crowds into churches, year after year. Apocalyptic scenarios are a diversion from real problems — poverty, terrorism, broken financial systems — needing intelligent attention. Even something as down-to-earth as the swine-flu scare has seemed at moments to be less about testing our health care system and its emergency readiness than about the fate of a diseased civilization drowning in its own fluids. Science Daily: Fast Pace of Glacier Melt in the 1940s: Lower Aerosol Pollution.

More than 7,500 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons, a report by the Palestinian Authority's ministry of prisoners' affairs has said. The ministry published the number of the Palestinian detainees at the end of 2009. According to the ministry, the Palestinian detainees include 310 children.

[The mother of a Palestinian man who was extra-judicially executed by Israeli forces mourns during his funeral in the West Bank city of Nablus.] Israeli Occupation Forces Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). On the 1st Anniversary of Israel's Offensive on the Gaza Strip, No Israeli War Criminals Have Been Held Accountable. ►Israeli occupation forces killed 6 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. ►3 of the victims were extra-judicially executed by Israeli occupation forces in Nablus. ►5 Palestinian civilians, including a child and a woman, were wounded by Israeli gunfire. ►Israeli troops used force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank. ►Israeli occupation forces conducted 28 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. ►Israeli occupation forces arrested 26 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children. ►Israeli naval troops have continued to attack Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Strip. ►Israeli has continued to impose a total closure on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. ►Israeli troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 4 Palestinian civilians, including one child. ►Israeli forces have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property. ►The Israeli government invited bids to build 692 housing units in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. ►A woman and a shepherd survived gunfire attacks by Israeli settlers. ►IOF ordered the demolition of a number of houses claiming that they were built without licenses.

Israeli fighter jets have struck at two targets in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said on Saturday that the jets targeted two tunnels, one east of Gaza City and another near Khan Younis around midnight. Witnesses also reported several other explosions around Gaza. The Israelis said these blasts had nothing to do with them.

Many Americans are still struggling at the depths of this recession. We have 37 million Americans on food stamps and many wait until midnight of the last day of the month so checks can clear to buy food at Wal-Mart. NYT: Goldman Sachs to Award Employees $23 Billion In Bonuses.

More than 312 American soldiers died in Afghanistan last year -- nearly twice as many as in 2008. In Iraq, only 150 Americans lost their lives, half as many as the year before. December 2009 was also the first month since the U.S.-led war in Iraq began in March 2003 without a U.S. combat death. The three U.S. casualties in Iraq in December were the result of non-combat related incidents. This number does not include all the vets who take their own life, either in Iraq/Afghanistan or when they've gone back home. Reuters: U.S. Army suicides set to hit new high in 2009. CNN: Army official: Suicides in January 'terrifying'. Mother Jones: The Veteran Suicides.

Rush Limbaugh Says Doctors Found "Nothing Wrong". "Based on what happened to me here, I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American healthcare system. It is working just fine," he said. Limbaugh, a multimillionaire, said he got no special treatment, but the staff made his stay "almost like a hotel."

Haskell and his wife, Lori, were aboard Flight 253 when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to destroy the plane. AlterNet: What's Next: Muslim-Only Lines At Airports? -Three years ago British Dept of Transportation officials openly discussed corralling men of South Asian or Middle Eastern appearance at airports for intense questioning, checks and searches. Now open talk of Muslim-only airport lines are fueling even greater racial division, fear and hysteria. The Guardian: Racial or religious groups could be picked out for hi-tech airport checks: "They would be looking for people who are acting differently from regular passengers. However, it is going to appear to target a particular group of people because sadly it is that group of people that is presenting the problem at the moment." Crooks & Liars: You Don't Need To See My Wife & Children Naked To Secure An Airplane! (Congressman Chaffetz). Black Agenda Report: Is the Detroit Nigerian "Terrorist" A Patsy?

Result of Israeli military aid to Africa: 157 people were killed in the massacre, dozens of women were raped by soldiers and hundreds of demonstrators were beaten. It has been a ll due to the involvement of Israeli military advisers in Guinea.

Iraqi prisoners "were sexually humiliated by female British soldier" - Fourteen new cases of sexual abuse have been made against a secretive British Army interrogation unit.

The police foiled an attempt to kill an artist who drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the head of Denmark’s intelligence service said Saturday. Jakob Scharf, who heads PET, the Danish intelligence service, said a 28-year-old Somalia man was armed with an ax and a knife when he tried to enter the home of the artist, Kurt Westergaard, in Aarhus on Friday evening. BBC: Danish police shoot and wound man in home of Kurt Westergaard (creator of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad).