The former American military chief of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reiterates the Israeli involvement in the US-run facility, where hundreds of Iraqi suspects were tortured and sexually abused by US soldiers and interrogators. Shedding further light on the scandal that has served as a controversy-magnet for Washington ever since its emergence in 2004, the retired US army colonel Janis Karpinski says that Israeli agents were recruited by the US military at Abu Ghraib to interrogate the prisoners suspected of attacking US forces in Iraq. The report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar is set to fuel more debate on the matter as Karpinski had, until recently, refused to expound on the Israeli connection at Abu Ghraib despite admitting earlier to the presence of Israeli interrogators in the US-run compound.

"While the rationale for using the US military domestically had been debated for years, President Barack Obama appears intent on using our military at least until he can create his promised 'Civilian Security Force' which he said would be as big and powerful as the military." - political strategist Mike Baker. Although the mainstream media covers most legislation being debated on the floors of both houses of the US Congress, it is the presidential executive orders that are implemented with enormous impact on the lives of American citizens that should be exposed. For example, this past week, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order thereby creating a Council of Governors to create a working relationship between the Federal Government and State Governments to protect the United States against all types of hazards.

Brown: "I know I have a lot to learn in the Senate, but I know who I am and I know who I serve. I’m Scott Brown, I'm from Wrentham, and I drive a truck. And let me just say in conclusion… I am nobody’s senator but yours." Starting with a big lie. -This does not bode well for people in Massachusetts. Yahoo: GOP's Brown wins Mass. Senate race in epic upset. WaPo: Teabagger Brown beats Coakley in special Senate election in Massachusetts. Examiner: 7 interesting facts about new Mass. senator: Getting to know Scott Brown. Redress: Why Martha Coakley lost: People are pissed off. There really isn't much more to it than that. Working people, poor people, are very, very angry – and they simply don't see saving this lousy legislation as a reason to go to the polls on a snowy day in January. As far as the grassroots progressives, whose vaunted people power supposedly catapulted Obama into office? Though they lapped up his best seller, audacity of hope, they are not lining up for pre-orders on the sequel, the audacity of bombing the crap out of everyone for their own damn good. Democrats have stupidly squandered an incredible opportunity. The populist anger is still very real, but they have ceded it to the right in one of the worst performances in modern politically history. If they want to save their party, they had better take a much more radical turn – and fast. History doesn't wait. Webster Tarpley: The Massachusetts Senate Race: A Populist Protest Vote Against Wall Street Puppets. AWIP/Chris Floyd: Critical Mass: Dem Agenda Opens Right-Wing Doors: Democrats and progressives are crying doom over the party's defeat in Massachusetts. The loss, we're told, is a blow to Barack Obama's political agenda, and so it is. They say it's a shame that yet another rightwing zealot who advocates torture is now in the Senate, and so it is. But it is precisely that agenda that led to the loss, and the shame. It is that agenda which has resurrected a rightwing party that was dead in the water, and empowered its most extreme elements.

I have heard rumors that Haiti has vast oil reserves -- and that the globalists want these reserves. However, the globalists cannot get the reserves, because the oil belongs to the Haitian people. So the globalists do not allow the Haitians to exploit the oil reserves, because it would allow the Haitian people to prosper. It would allow the Haitians to build proper infrastructure, so that 7.0 earthquakes do not have such a devastating effect.

A strong aftershock struck near the Haitian capital on Wednesday morning, shaking buildings and setting off screams of terror from the thousands of residents who have been camped outside since last week’s powerful earthquake. The aftershock, which had a magnitude 6.1, came around 6 a.m. about 35 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and was the most powerful to hit Haiti since the initial earthquake on Jan. 12.

When Mr. Préval asked religious and business leaders at a meeting on Saturday whether they supported the intervention of the United States Marines, the response came with a caveat. “They said, ‘Yes — as long as it’s temporary,’ ” said Bishop Jean-Zache Duracin of Haiti’s Episcopal Church, who attended the meeting. “We have no choice because the government has collapsed.” MSF/DWB: Doctors Without Borders Plane with Lifesaving Medical Supplies Diverted Again from Landing in Haiti. Democracy Now!: US Accused of Militarizing Relief Effort in Haiti. The Nation: US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti. Chris Floyd: Death by Bottleneck: Musclebound Militarism Hampers Haiti Relief.

While media reports from Haiti express amazement at Israel's well-equipped medical delegation to the quake-stricken nation, some critics have warned against organ theft. The Israeli medical team dispatched to Haiti has set up a field hospital in the tremor-battered Caribbean country, winning Western media praise for doing what even their American peers have not yet managed to accomplish. But a video posted on Youtube by an American resident of Seattle, Washington on Tuesday took the shine off the Israeli professionalism that media have raved about in the past few days. In his video, T. West of a group called AfriSynergy Productions suggested that soldiers in the military delegation to the earthquake site in Haiti might be involved in stealing organs from their patients.

They started pushing the violence meme the day after the earthquake. I was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer that evening via Skype. Part way through the interview, they cut to their correspondent for a live chat from the airport. Democracy Now!: Misinformation and Racism Have Frozen Recovery Effort at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince: “There are no security issues,” says Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health, reporting from the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince.

US drones launched another attack against North Waziristan Agency today, killing six people in the tiny village of Deegan, west of Miramshah. All six people were locals, and officials said it was unclear which, if any, militant group they might be linked with. The attack was the 11th drone strike into Pakistan (10 in North Waziristan and one just across the border in South Waziristan) in 2010. The attacks have killed scores of people. AWIP: 11 More Slain in Two Strikes as US Drones Continue to Target North Waziristan: AFP: 11 killed in US missile strikes in NW Pakistan: officials. AntiWar: US Drone Fired Missile Into a Crowd of "Suspects," Killing 13 Afghans. TANSW: Pakistan Taliban deny US drone strike killed top leader. This comes on top of this Nobel Peace Prize winner Kills at Least 15 in North Waziristan and this Civilians Slain as Latest US Drone Strike on North Waziristan, Kills Five and this US Drones Kill 12 in North Waziristan: Third TERROR Strike in 24 Hours in Tribal Area and this U.S. Drones Kill 15 People Near Border in Pakistan and summing up all of 2009, this: 44 US drone hits in Pakistan killed 700 civilians in 2009.

Suicides in the US Army rose to a new record in 2009, with 160 soldiers taking their lives, the military said on Saturday, calling it a “painful year.” Army leaders had warned that the suicide rate was on track to surpass last year’s toll of 140, but said the causes of the spike remain unclear. “There’s no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides,” said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force.

Mass Corruption in Danger of Toppling Karzai Govt. Though not given as high a profile by the NATO forces as the growing insurgency or the opium trade, a new report suggests that corruption and bribery costs Afghans $2.5 billion every year, roughly a quarter of the nation’s economy. The report, issued today by the UN, suggests that doing virtually anything in the nation has a huge bribery cost associated with it, and Afghans have little legal recourse when officials come knocking, demanding a payout. AWIP/RebelReports: Blackwater Wants to Surge its Armed Force in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of gun sights ordered for British troops in Afghanistan are inscribed with coded biblical references, it has emerged. The equipment was purchased from an American manufacturer which yesterday confirmed that markings carried on the same brand of sights used by US marines related to New Testament verses. The codes include JN8:12 and 2COR4:6, which point to passages from the books of John and Second Corinthians respectively.

The FBI continues to keep secret hundreds of thousands of pages of documents stemming from the Civil Rights Era, including information related to the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Israel is arresting a growing number of prominent opponents to its policies toward the Palestinians, say critics who are accusing the government of trying to crush legitimate dissent. In the most high-profile case yet, Jerusalem police detained the leader of a leading Israeli human rights group during a vigil against the eviction of Palestinian families whose homes were taken by Jewish settlers. Since the summer, dozens of Palestinian and Israeli activists have been picked up, including those organizing weekly protests against Israel's West Bank "separation barrier" as well as others advocating international boycotts of Israeli goods.

Norman Finkelstein interviewed on Danish public service TV by Jewish, and pro-Zionist host Adam Holm. November 14 2009. Adam Holm was reprimanded by his superiors from Danmarks Radio recently for having published a news paper article expressing his strong support for Israel. The Danish Broadcasting Company prefers to keept the illusion of impartiality. On this occation a stoic Finkelstein manages to get Adam Holm off balance as Holm more and more desperately tries to counter Finkelsteins simple message: Uphold international law in connection with Israel as with any other state. Adam Holms clearly emotional approach speaks louder than a thousand words.

Horton's conversations with four members of a military intelligence unit assigned to Camp Delta at Guantánamo Bay detail the existence of a "black site" compound there that they nicknamed "Camp No," and from which they heard a "series of screams" on one occasion. They also told of a white van, known as the "paddy wagon," which transported caged prisoners from their cell blocks to "Camp No." The drivers of the paddy wagon were able to avoid a search by telling camp guards they were "delivering a pizza," which the guards were made to understand was code for transporting a prisoner. The Obama Administration has chosen to align itself with people who refer to human beings as pizzas. AWIP/Harper's: The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle.

"The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions." MainJustice: FBI Invoked ‘Emergencies’ To Gather U.S. Phone Records.

Planet Earth has warmed much less than expected during the industrial era based on current best estimates of Earth’s “climate sensitivity”—the amount of global temperature increase expected in response to a given rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2). In a study to be published in the Journal of Climate, a publication of the American Meteorological Society (the early online release of the paper is available starting 19 January 2010; the link is given below), Stephen Schwartz, of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and colleagues examine the reasons for this discrepancy.

The United States is losing ground to its major competitors in the global marketplace, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This year, of the world's 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.

BlackWater started its operations in 2007 in Pakistan. Since then, it has been involved in many under cover operations and establishment of offices in Pakistan. After changing its name to XE Worldwide, the mercenary army has penetrated in Peshawar, Islamabad and Karachi. This report reveals the covert operations that Blackwater is performing in Pakistan.